


Our Love Is...

by GingerEnvy



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Anxiety, Clint is pretty much in need of hugs, Developing Relationship, Happy Ending, Human Experimentation, M/M, Self-Esteem Issues, Slow Burn, Time Travel, and so is Mags, but we'll get into that later, rocky relationship, vaguely
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2019-10-10 10:50:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17424473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GingerEnvy/pseuds/GingerEnvy
Summary: Clint is 36, he's certain he's not going to meet his soulmate, not after all of the Avengers met theirs the second they all assembled. He's pretty sure that just means he went the wrong direction, but it's fine, he'll just get a dog. Except it seems Fate has other plans for him and sees him falling through a black hole only to stumble into a whole new thing to have reservations about.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello frieeends~ I know this isn't the story you'd expect, but I have been working on this fic for over a year now and I'm finally at the point where I want to start posting. I probably will be taking my time because I want it to be good, so updates will be coming every other month.  
> Hope you'll like my weird ass Rarepair and enjoy yourselves, have fun, I certainly did while writing it.

_Soulmates are beyond the comprehension of both the mind and the heart, but no matter who they are with, the words and feelings will have meaning._

That is irrefutable, as studies upon studies in the world have discovered. There’s no way to explain soulmates, just that it’s impossible to deny them.

Nearly everyone was born with the first words their soulmate will say to them somewhere on their body, no matter how old or young their soulmate is at the time, which means that everyone is predestined to meet their soulmate. However, even if they meet, most are not predestined to stay together, or even be romantically involved, some are meant to be friends, some meant to be business partners, some meant to be enemies. There are a few people who have more than one line of words scrawled on their skin somewhere.

The words appear on your skin a week before you are born (they can tell that now, ultrasounds are that good), and stay there in an inky black until you hear them say it, then it burns into your skin and turns white, like a scar.  
Most people are excited to hear their words, and they try to use any hint their words provide them with a way to find their soulmate, and they hope that they are meant to be together forever, that is fairly common.

But there are also cases of people fearing their words being said to them because they don’t know if the words could be mean or cruel or are possibly just a slip of sarcasm or a joke, because the tone in which they are said is not provided, and wouldn’t that be so helpful? But alas, you don’t know until you hear it.

Clint Barton’s problem was the latter.

 _You must be joking._ Was laid out in a nice script across the inside of his left arm. He knew it was possible that his soulmate had a dumb phrase on them somewhere that they dearly hoped was in fact, a joke, and that was what the result of Clint’s words were. So with that in mind he had made it a habit to say stupid shit all the time, perhaps as a defense mechanism, or a hopeless maneuver to scare people away or even to lure out the one person who may very well be the one person on the planet who will love him more than anyone else.  

But so far nothing, and it had so far only led him to believe that it wasn’t going to happen and really in the end, that would be better because, despite his hope and posturing, he knew, somehow, deep down that the way the words on his arms were said were in disappointment.

Who would ever want to love him? Or be friends with him? Or even be his enemy? He wasn’t worth it.

He couldn’t help it, ever since he could remember he knew that those words doomed him, that they meant he was a disappointment, his father and then his brother had made it very clear to him that was the case, that no one wanted him, not even his soulmate. His mother tried, oh she tried, to make it better, to tell him that wasn’t the case, but he got the feeling that secretly she was already disappointed in him too. He supposed he’d never know.

But because of all this, he’d decided he’d not care when the words turned from black to white, he’d pretend like it didn’t happen, and so far, for the past thirty six years, they hadn’t, he figured his life had been so full of madness he wouldn’t meet his soulmate. And that would be just fine with him. That had happened sometimes, it wasn’t too often, but it did happen. Destiny got fucked up somewhere, that was something that one risked when everyone had free will. But Clint didn’t mind if that was the case for him. He knew he wouldn’t have to worry about being a disappointment, at the very least, because he already was one.

So he carried on, he learned to be the best possible marksman to ever live, at least when it came to archery, and then some other pretty useful skills too. He was a mercenary for a while and that was a time in his life that was rough and led him to really believe he was a monumental fuck up, at the time he’d embraced it, because what else could he do? But then he was with SHIELD, making a difference, trying to do good, for a while he’d been ok, but then he had fucked that up too hadn’t he, thanks to Loki? But then he was an Avenger to help make amends and it was all okay, and he no longer had an excuse...Right? But it was hard not to still feel that way when he was surrounded by the superpowered people with solid soulmate connections and geniuses with like five soulmates and it was just kind of hard not to think about it, but he did his best to ignore it. He shouldn’t complain, he’d lived a pretty good life all considering, he thought so at least, he was able to do things with his life and that mattered.

So he went about his life, fighting baddies alongside the Avengers, ignoring the ache that had settled deep in his bones after Barnes was recovered and Natasha had her Soulmate back and she wasn’t really around him as much as she used to be. But he couldn’t blame her, she hadn’t seen her man in a couple decades, and he was slowly recovering from the major mind fuck Hydra had put on him. So Clint mostly kept to himself to allow them time to reacquaint. It gave him time to watch the rest of the team from the shadows. Steve and Tony would dance around each other, the old routine of arguing and then making up to be squishy in love, and Tony and Bruce did SCIENCE™ because their science brodom was spiritual. And Sam and Steve had a bromance going on, though Clint wasn’t sure if that was down to a soulmark level. Though Steve and Bucky’s bestie status sure was, it was a bit insane how close they were, but they were purely platonic. And Thor had his people, apparently, it was normal for Asgardians to have dozens of phrases because they lived so long, they met so many people to connect with, so Thor was pretty busy too. Which more or less left Clint to his own devices when they weren’t all out being Avengers, he couldn’t help but feel like he was the odd man out with them even then, but he did his damnedest to ignore it.

Luckily the days they fought alongside each other were the least lonely for him because after the battle was won and they were all tired but in good moods as long as no one was seriously hurt which didn’t happen too often, they gathered around the TV and watched a movie while they ate and drank and were merry, and Clint was able to forget a little that he was alone.

He did get along with Bucky pretty well, seeing as they were both ex-brainwashed assassins and snipers. So when Nat and Bucky were feeling up for company he was welcome, but seeing them together, with gentle smiles and almost not quite intimate touches, Clint was reminded again how he hadn’t met his soulmate, even when everyone else he knew had, and this late in life, that usually meant he’d gone the wrong direction and he wasn’t going to meet them.

It was good, he supposed, they wouldn’t have to deal with him, maybe he could go find a dog and settle down that way...he liked dogs.

He still liked them even if currently there was one that looked kind of like a hellhound on his ass as he ran through the streets of New York to try and lose it even as it was nipping at his heels, and a gross green tongue of mist came out of its mouth to try and snag at his ankle. It was kind of terrifying, but he managed to jump away at the last second before it did whatever, it still left a gross sensation behind that made him run faster.

“Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck,” he hissed, he was out of grappling hook arrows so was not able to get up high, not that it would help as the damn things that all of the Avengers were fighting could run up the sides of buildings, hence why he was on the street running for it, but he was only human, and he was going to tire eventually and oh look now there were three of them on his ass, and closing fast, which got some more swearing hissed frantically into the comms.

“ _Having a hard time of it there, Hawkeye?_ ” Tony drawled, “ _I didn’t realize you were so desperate._ ”

“ _Don’t be crude on the comms,_ ” Steve said sounding more resigned than upset about it.

Clint scowled, “Where are you?” He couldn’t hear the repulsors anywhere nearby.

“ _Wow, you’re that desperate are you?_ ” Tony said, obviously ignoring Steve. “ _I mean, I am in the suit…_ ”

“ _Gross,_ ” Sam sighed.

“Are you just going to joke about my sex life or come and prevent me from getting mauled, asshole? I need some help here!” He snapped and spun around to fire a smoke bomb arrow to try and give himself some cover, using a few nearby footholds to parkour his way into the next street, shame they weren’t normal dogs and a few seconds later were on his ass again and closing.

“ _What? No, you’re actually in trouble?_ ”

“ _**Yes, I’m in trouble!** _” Clint snarled, they were only two feet away now, and he was slowing, “Jesus fucking fuck!”

“ _Hey now-_ ”

“SHIT!” Clint cried as he turned down the wrong corner and it was a dead end, he turned around and pulled an arrow, the three hounds were now stalking towards him, eyes glowing a gross eerie green.

“Now would really be a great time for you to swoop in and actually help instead of pretending like you’re the only person saving the day like you usually do, Stark,” Clint said, pulling his bow back so his thumb was brushing his cheek, not even hearing Tony’s indignant reply. It was an explosive arrow, but at this distance, Clint would get caught in the blast too. Blasted to hell, or mauled by dogs from hell? It was a tough choice.

BAMF.

“Hold on!”

BAMF.

Clint’s world disappeared in a puff of smoke and the smell of brimstone and then reappeared again on a roof six blocks away from where he’d been.

“Fucking-!” Clint huffed and stepped forward in surprise his draw slackening now that there was nothing to shoot, then turned to see a fuzzy blue mutant grinning at him, “Jeez, a little warning, Wagner!”

“I did tell you to hold on,” he pointed out and Clint shook his head but couldn’t help but smile in relief at the sudden arrival of help.

“Hey circus freak, how’s it going?” he asked and Kurt beamed at him.

“Much better than you it seems, carnie trash~” he replied cheerfully and Clint laughed he stepped forward and squeezed Kurt’s arm who returned the gesture, “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks to you…ah why are you here?” he asked and Kurt shrugged.

“Ve vere given an anonymous tip that the Avengers vere in need of some help,” he said and then nodded out at the city behind them, Clint turned and saw Jean and Cyclops, and Logan and Storm and Quicksilver and more, so many of the X-Men it was kind of crazy.

“You all came out for us?” he asked, usually it was just one or two of them, “Why? We don’t need that much help do we?”

“I do not really know, it vas the Professor, he said he got an anonymous tip from a reliable source, vhatever that means, that you vere all in serious trouble, though I am not sure vhy-” just then the earth gave a monstrous rumble and shit started to move, the buildings and streets rumbled apart, but thankfully not falling or collapsing, simply shifting, creating a huge split in the ground that started spilling a wave of the hellhounds and the green eerie smoke. “...ah.”

“Whelp.” Clint drawled.

“ _X-Men checking in on Avenger’s frequency_ ,” Scott said over the comms, everyone checked in in an orderly fashion and it looked like they were going to be pretty well set. The X-Men and the Avengers had fought together several times before, though with fewer people than this time, but made a good team, and Clint had gotten to know most of them during their ‘after parties’ and of course during holidays when they got together for PR purposes, but in reality Clint and Logan tried to out drink Steve or Thor, or both, or Clint and Kurt talked about circuses and a lot of things, he sassed Peter and Scott, and was pretty decent friends with most of them, they were good people and great to work with.

“ _We can hear you, X-Men and we’re grateful for the assistance,_ ” Steve replied, then was teased for being so formal. Ah this might be kind of fun, maybe.

Clint sighed, “Guess I won’t be getting back in time for the season finale of The Magicians,” he was already pulling out a few explosive arrows as he spoke.

“Tough luck, my friend,” Kurt said and Clint offered him a smirk then he pulled and let all three arrows fly, they landed in the middle of the rift and exploded a second later, several of the hellhounds went flying a few yelping, but a good majority of them went up in smoke.

“Nice shot.”

“Thanks- oooh, I made them mad,” Clint sighed, “You might have to stick with me to save my ass,” he told Kurt who looked too amused to be bothered by that.

“I will do my best to vatch your ass,” he replied, his eyes glittering with amusement.

“Didjya hear that, Peter? Your soulmate likes to watch my butt,” Clint drawled over the comms.

“ _He’s gotta look at somebody’s, mine’s too fast,_ ” Peter said and then he was next to them a second later and leaned back and obviously checked out Clint’s butt, “Eh, it’s not too bad.”

“I feel violated suddenly,” Clint said shaking his head and trying not to laugh.

“You’ll get over it, old man,” Peter said, then waggled silver eyebrows and shot off again.

“‘Old man’? You’re like twenty years older than me!” Clint called out after him, “Though none of you look it...is the x-gene like...an anti-aging gene…?”

“Only for Logan,” Kurt replied amused, “Shall ve move now? It appears the hounds are heading our vay and they appear vengeful.”

“Aaah...yeah,” Clint offered his hand and Kurt took it and BAMF’d them away again.

That was really how the battle carried out, Clint would shoot and help try to corral the beasts while the rest of the two teams tried to either make them smoke or shove them back in the rift, it was slow going and SHIELD ended up trying to help out too, it was so boring after a while and monotonous and way too many hours later they were able to leave it to SHIELD to monitor when it looked like nothing else was coming out of the rift and all of the hounds were gone or had been contained. They all headed back to Avengers Tower, the X-Men invited to stay the night so they didn’t have to go all the way back to Westchester that night, and were able to stay in the guest rooms after several big orders of Chinese and Indian and Pizza from the nearest places and a short little celebration that no one had gotten hurt and then everyone was off to bed, exhausted and ready to rest.

Clint was able to sleep for a few hours before the glowing green eyes of the hellhounds turned into blue and he woke with Loki’s laughter in his ear.

He ended up at the range, shooting quiver after quiver of arrows until he was once again exhausted, but unable to rest, he felt like his skin was itching, like it wasn’t right, like he didn’t belong in it. That was pretty normal, however, the edge to it tonight was enough to drive him to paranoia.

He thought he saw blue, and then green and then blue again at the corners of his eyes, it was enough for him to walk around the tower with his bow and quiver on, just in case, but all was quiet, JARVIS didn’t report anything, and no one else was awake as far as he could tell.

So everything was safe-

“ _I remember doing the Time Warp~_ ”

“Jesus!” Clint jumped a foot in the air as the song lyrics broke the quiet of the tower, he had to take several deep breaths to calm his racing heart before he reached into his back pocket and answered his damn phone.

“What?” he grouched.

“Ah, sorry to wake you Hawkeye,” an unfamiliar voice said, sounding very apologetic, “I’m Agent Carlton, and I was just trying to get ahold of someone from the Avengers but no one else has answered yet,” she sounded like a newb.

Clint grunted, “So?”

“Uh...well...we were just going to try and close the rift and we thought it best to have some backup, just in case,” she said, sounding even more unsure now.

Clint sighed and rubbed his face, “Alright, just give me a minute to get my shit then I’ll be there, give me thirty.”

“Yes, sir,” she said and hung up with what Clint assumed was relief, and then Clint sighed and went back to the range to grab another quiver, so he had two, both stuffed with arrows, explosive, incendiary, grappling, putty, boomerang, smoke bomb, sonic, electric, suction, net, he threw some of the acid arrows in there too because why not? And some extra cable and grappling ones, just in case. He was sure it was overkill but hey, if he was going to be the backup, he might as well be prepared, and on that thought added on a few of his knife sets too, garroting wire, and a stole a few of Natasha’s stings. He had on his complete uniform too, it looked like he was going to go kill someone, but truthfully, he just didn’t want any more of those damn dogs getting at him and he’d do his worst to make sure they didn’t get close enough to him again. They kind of freaked him out.

He also stole Steve’s bike, because take that for not waking up, jerk. Steve and Tony were probably curled around each other, warm and safe in each other’s arms, soulmates actually enjoying each others company-

Wow, negative nancy Clint, he really needed to sleep, he was a grump right now.

He’d sleep later, once this was done, hopefully, he’d just pass out and wouldn’t dream, that was really what he needed.

He arrived about ten minutes later, it was nice to have the Tower so close to where everything usually went to shit, he parked the bike and headed over to the group of people standing around some science and tech gadgets, he was too tired to really care.

He spotted Maria over in the thick of things, and wandered over to her, she glanced up.

“Barton? I was hoping for Stark or anyone-”

“Not useless?” he replied blandly, and she frowned at him.

“-with the ability to fly,” she finished, “You look like shit.” She told him and he shrugged.

“What’s new? They were all sleeping. Alright let’s do this, I have other things to shoot at, or whatever,” he waved his hand around and she sighed and then nodded.

“Might as well find a perch where you can see into the rift to see if anything is happening,” she said and he nodded, then pulled his bow off and shot up to one of the higher buildings and was able to rappel up.

It took the scientists a few more minutes to get sorted and then they gave the call to start, Clint kept his eyes on the rift, of which he had a good view, it was gaping and black, and Clint really wanted to be nowhere near it. He had a bad feeling being so close to it.

“ _We’re about to start, ready Hawkeye?_ ”

“Yep, let’s do this.”

“ _Alright, call out anything you see._ ”

“Will do.”

He pulled another arrow out and set it on the bow but didn’t pull the string, he kept watch on the rift instead, calling out anything he saw, which at first really wasn’t much. A few pieces of rubble would fall in and it would rumble from time to time, but that was about it.

Until about forty-five minutes later everything shook, and two spots of green appeared in the depths and slowly formed one of the hounds.

“Hound emerging, want me to shoot it?” he called, pulling his bow back in preparation.

“ _Hold fire for just a moment longer, we want to conduct some tests, we’ll tell you when_ ,” one of the scientists replied.

“Holding,” he replied, watching the hound fiercely, it didn’t look like it was doing anything at first, but then it started sniffing, and only a moment later with a few turns of its head did narrow in on Clint, Clint knew this because the eerie green eyes were looking directly at him.

“What the...uh, guys, it knows where I am.”

“ _What?_ ”

“The hound it’s looking right at- oh now it’s coming at me, and fast, sorry I don’t care about your science, I’m going to shoot it-”

“ _No! This is the most readings we’ve had! Please! Just change positions and find cover until we’re done,_ ” the scientist begged.

Clint growled under his breath then put his piercing arrow back and pulled out a cable arrow, “Fine, but you better make it fast.”

“ _We will, please, we just need ten minutes,_ ” she promised.

Clint growled a little and then shot to another building and swung around so he was behind it then up on the roof again, then he was able to peek out and try and see the hound again. It was still looking at him.

This time it was coming even faster at him.

“Yeah, that shit better take less than ten minutes, it’s still tracking me!” he called, pulling out the cable and shooting it at a building further away, intending to get downwind in case that was the issue, and then he could swing back around to check on it again only for him to come back and see...

“ _It’s gone!_ ” one of the other agents replied just as Clint turned around.

“Yep, that’s because it’s behind me,” Clint replied, “You should have let me shoot it,” he grumbled and then he turned and ran to the edge of the building and jumped shooting an arrow to the building on the other side of the rift, except the arrow didn’t reach the other building, it looked like it got knocked out of the air by nothing and then started falling towards the rift, as was Clint.

“FUCKING SHIT!” he went to go pull another arrow out of his quiver except he felt something stop him from doing that, it felt like his bracer wasn’t moving and it felt like his quiver was pulling him down, and then he was falling faster and faster, and then he was falling through the rift and the blackness engulfed him, wrapping him in silence, even if it felt like he was moving faster than humanly possible and like his whole body was being unmade, and then what was forever and barely a second later he was in a cave stumbling, as if pushed, towards someone in a cape who seemed to hold out their arms on instinct, and then the world stopped moving so fast and he found he was still alive, and not being burned or crushed by the forces of gravity.

He blinked at the armored chest he was more or less pressed to then blinked again and looked up.

“Oh...wow, nice catch,” he breathed and he watched as the man’s eyebrows shot up over some pretty deep ‘doorway to the soul’ eyes, he opened his mouth and Clint was sort of too caught up with staring at him to think about it and then he said those words.

“ _You must be joking_.”

Clint felt the words on the inside of his wrist warm and then knew they were now white, instead of black and he was filled with more feeling than he knew what to do with and- oh.

“...oh,” he said aloud, still staring at the man, he had short brown hair and his eyes were so sad, it was like looking into the void and experiencing the most heart-wrenching thing imaginable and then doubling it. He wanted to say something, to let him know he didn’t have to feel like that because he was a disappointment, sure but he’d do anything to try and change that and he opened his mouth to say that but instead what came out was: “Sorry...I think I’m gonna be sick.”

That was enough for him to be let go and turn and in fact, get sick, but he had enough control to stumble over to a little nook in the rocks before letting go.

He gasped a bit and tried to pull himself together, but was having a hard time of it, he was so exhausted and everything was sore, he was shaking, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to stand for much longer, but well...he did just meet his soulmate.

Wow Clint, great first impression, he really needed to try and make this better, because what the fuck, just his luck, where the hell even was he? Rocks, lots and lots of rocks. Helpful, he just needed to find out what was going on, and how he got here from a rift and maybe figure out why this was how he’d met his soulmate? Aside from the fact that his life sucked and well that was a good enough reason.

He turned back around and rubbed the back of his head, “Sorry about that...oh, hi,” he felt his cheeks go pink as he noticed there were, in fact, four other people there with them, “Shit...sorry, I guess that was a shitty first impression.”

“It is not first impressions that matter, it is what you do in life that gives others the right to judge you,” one of the others said stepping forward and Clint’s eyebrow arched, he was blue, well that wasn’t new, but the weird head thing on his armor with the tubes was, and there was a dude with metal wings, which was actually pretty cool, and then a chick with white hair and another that was in purple who looked suspiciously at him. He liked her color preference at least.

“Well...alright, thanks, I guess...so we can...scratch off the whole falling in looking like a mess and then getting sick thing? That’d be really great,” he said rubbing the back of his head.  
“Who are you?” the blue man asked, “And why are you here?”

“Ah...Clint Barton, Hawkeye, and...um...I uh…” he glanced at the other man again who seemed to maybe be in shock?

“He’s here for me,” he said quietly, “He is my soulmate.”

“Uh...yeah...what he said,” Clint said weakly, feeling so far out of his depth he might drown on air, “And I don’t...really know how I got here, it involves creepy dogs with glowing green eyes chasing me into a black rift though...so…”

“Glowing green eyed dogs?” The man asked, his face twitching just slightly, and Clint took that as shock, he nodded in confirmation, “The Hounds of Fate…” the blue guy murmured, “You have been given a gift, my son,” he said stepping forward and addressing the other man, “It is a testament to what we are doing, Fate has brought to you your one true half to reward you for the work you are to do.”

The man turned and started to address the other people there with lots of flower superfluous language that made Clint want to start drooling a little, but instead he turned to look at his soulmate, he eyed him closely, trying to figure out who he was, if he knew him, maybe if he’d give him a clue as to what the fuck was happening. But his soulmate seemed to pointedly not be looking at him. Well, alright then.

He was so tired he wasn’t really able to ignore the hurt feeling at that, damn feelings getting so raw with tiredness, but he was able to push it aside to take in everything that was happening and use then wracked his brain for the knowledge he was sure he already had because honestly this seemed vaguely familiar and with that little hint he was able to come to a few conclusions; one of which was that he was pretty sure that the blue dude was Apocalypse, which was crazy, he’d been dead for more than three decades, he’d been in the SHIELD archives, Clint only knew of him vaguely because he’d looked into Mutant history once they had started working with the X-Men. And he noted that the whole deal with the super mutant had been very very messy. He barely remembered any of the details but he did know how it ended more or less and just that some pretty prominent mutants had been involved at the time, Kurt, Cyclops, Jean and Peter to name a few, and also Storm who now that he was remembering realized was the girl with white hair, she was so _young_ , holy shit, this was crazy! What the actual fuck, was that really Storm? It didn’t make any sense, he’d literally just seen her less than eight hours ago, older and wiser and in a different costume. This didn’t make any sense. Was it really Apocalypse and a young Storm? Had he somehow fallen...into the past? That was madness. And stupid and totally made sense for his life because what the fuck? Had he seriously just been sent to the past to meet his soulmate? Who was obviously involved with Apocalypse.

His brain stalled for a second, there had only been four people involved with Apocalypse, now that he recalled. Storm, a mutant called Angel who- well he didn’t want to think it before it happened, the purple girl was Psylocke and-

Clint’s eyes widened and he looked at the man next to him.

“...huh, you’re Magneto,” he said casually because holy shit his soulmate was Magneto. His life was super fucked up and liked to kick him in the balls for good measure it seemed.

The other man finally looked back at him, his face guarded.

“Yes, I am,” he replied and seemed to expect some kind of bad reaction as he tensed, but Clint was honestly too tired beyond being able to acknowledge the fact.

“...good to know,” he replied evenly because what the fuck was he supposed to do about it, soulmates were for life, two people linked right down to their very souls, there were no exchanges or returns, even if one of them happened to be a notorious mass murderer. Clint would just have to deal, and besides he had a feeling he had something a bit more complicated to deal with at the moment, namely the old Egyptianan mutant planning on destroying the planet, so he didn’t mention the soulmate thing, instead, he gestured to where Apocalypse was preaching to the other... Horsemen? Yeah, them, “So...um...do you...believe everything he’s saying?”

Magneto looked away from him again, his face blank, “Why do you ask?”

“...because I don’t think you do,” Clint said honestly, looking down.

“Oh?” the man asked, and it was incredible how much tone he could put into that single syllable, it sounded like a warning almost, but Clint was never one for taking those, he was also tired beyond belief, so just kept talking even though it really wasn’t his place, despite Fate.

“I think you’re just in pain. I think you need something to fill the hole in your heart...so you’re clinging to something that you think will help,” he said his voice still quiet because good lord did he not want to be really heard by Blue Wonder, he’d be dead in a microsecond, soulmate or not.

“You don’t know me,” Magneto replied and Clint looked up then, compelled by something, his tiredness, yup, he was going to go with that.

“No...but I know your soul,” he replied looking him in the eyes again, “I know how much it hurts...to be left behind. But this...it’s not going to- Is that Xavier?”

He blinked at the corner of the rock formation, his voice raising at the end when he spotted the prone figure slumped in the wheelchair, “Holy shit it is, holy shit guys, holy shit.”

Everyone was looking at him as he walked over, “This is madness, I can’t believe I’m seeing this,” he gaped, “ _He has hair._ ”

The others, after tensing aggressively at his first words, seemed very confused at his second words. Clint was tempted to pull out his phone and get a selfie because holy shit, he never knew Xavier had hair! This was crazy! He was actually reaching for his phone when Apocalypse stepped forward, seeming to dismiss the outburst, as it wasn’t anything important.

“It is time my children to begin to bring our purpose to fruition, we will fight and we will raze all who oppose us to the ground we will prevail and bring about a new age of mutants!” he was very grandiose and it took all of Clint’s will not to make faces at his back, good thing too as a moment later he was addressed, “And you, will you fight with us?” he looked to Clint who pressed his lips together, good lord he was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to, because it wasn’t in the history books, right? Because this happened in...1983? So...god he was three years old, soooo, yeah, definitely not, but...shit what other choice did he have?

He looked to Magneto and looked him straight in the eye, “I’d follow the people I’m loyal to straight into the jaws of death, whether they deserve it or not,” Holy shit he was tired if he was already making dumbass declarations. Maybe if he was lucky the rift would return and re-swallow him and send him to anywhere else. He was an idiot.

Magneto looked at him for a moment then back at Apocalypse and gave a minute nod, but didn’t say anything, he just had his lips pressed together.

Clint didn’t say anything more, because he didn’t need to make more of a fool of himself, maybe he’d already disappointed his soulmate, who was, by the way, Magneto, and it was likely all gonna go to hell anyway, and he really should stop thinking because obviously, that was all he was going to get, was he really that bad? Shit, he didn’t know, he’d tried. Clearly, he was not meant for this whole soulmate thing.

“You look like you are going to cry,” an accented voice said and Clint blinked and became aware of the white-haired girl, Storm, it _was_ Storm, she was so young, and she had an accent, that was crazy, he had no idea she’d ever had one, and she was looking at him funny, oh right she’d spoken to him.

“O-oh, shit yeah, no, I’m not going to cry,” he laughed, “I might drop from exhaustion though,” he shook his head, “No worries, I was just in a fight earlier, and then couldn’t sleep and then had an adrenaline spike from falling through a rift in time...a bit tiring all that, don’t worry about it, I’ll be fine, thanks.”

“If that is so, you should not be fighting now,” she said frowning at him.

“I’ll be fine, don’t wor-”

“No,” Magneto said suddenly, “If you’re not fit to fight then you’ll just be a hindrance.”

“Wow, careful there it almost sounds like you care,” he muttered but ended up being loud enough the other man heard and gave him a sharp look. Clint went slightly pink, “I am perfectly capable of looking after myself. Honestly, I’ve been through worse, I’ll be fine, I just have to shoot at people right? It’s fine, it’s nothing I haven’t done before.”

Magneto turned to face him completely, “You’re going to stay here and not get involved. You’re useless like this, I don’t want to have to look after you.”

Clint opened his mouth to argue, but he didn’t get the chance because a soft touch on his arm from Apocalypse had him collapsing into unconsciousness.

Fucking _rude._

 

_To Be Continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

Clint woke up with bright lights above him, he was laying on a bed of some kind, ah, a hospital bed, that made sense. Okay then- wait, why was he on a hospital bed?

Suddenly the whole mess of what had happened spiked through his head, the hounds, the fall through the rift, encountering his Soulmate and then Apocalypse-?

“Oh shit,” he mumbled and sat up, looking around, it looked like a normalish examination room, no Apocalypse faces everywhere, so that was a good sign he supposed, though there were a few things that he’d never seen before, but he could probably relate that to it being the 80s.

He paused and then let his mind turn on again.

Holy shit he was in the 80s.

He took a deep breath. 

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

He was in the 80s, that was so crazy, was it normal? Did people travel back in time to meet their soulmates often? He’d never heard of it happening before, so why him?

And who his soulmate was? Shit, he had thought he was going to be a major disappointment to his soulmate, and turned out he’d been even worse than that.

Magneto was a notorious human hater, and Clint was the most humany human to ever be born, and here they were being thrust together by Fate. Could Fate be any more of a bitch? Jeez.

“You are a very loud thinker, my friend,” another accented voice said, and Clint jumped and spun around to see none other than Professor Charles Xavier. And bald no less. Boo. Should have gotten that selfie when he had the chance.

“Holy shit,” he muttered and put a hand to his chest, “For a dude who can read minds you’d think you’d be better at not scaring people.”

The man offered a beatific smile but didn’t seem sorry at all, “You have a rather interesting tale of how you got here, don’t you?” 

“Apparently so,” Clint replied, “...is it normal for that to happen to people?”

“Not that I am aware, it is unheard of, not to mention the fact that your words are in the same exact spot on your body as your soulmates are on his, that is incredibly rare.”

“Oh boy,” he sighed, “Well, not only a disappointment, but a monumental one,” he shook his head, “Speaking of? Has he been scared away?”

“Ah, it is...a...difficult position for him,” Charles said rolling his chair closer to Clint, “You see...the reason for his partnership with Apocalypse was because he was going through grief at the death of his wife and daughter.”

“Oh shit,” Clint put a hand to his face, “Yeah, I am sooooo not right for this.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Cause the dude has a lot of baggage, waaay too much for me to help carry, cause I already got so much of my own, like seriously we are the saddest pair ever, I can tell you that right now, there’s no way I can help him work through his shit,” he shook his head, “Maybe we should just pretend it never happened and I can find my way back to 2016.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh...uh...I’m from the future?” Clint said, confused.

“Yes, I was aware of that, but...I did not realize it was _ that _ far in the future,” the professor pressed his mouth together and frowned in thought, “I do not think there is a way for you to go back.”

“What? Aren’t there any mutants who can future hop? I mean there are in the future, surely that’s not a new power...right?”

“I’m afraid there’s not, the only mutant I am aware of that has powers connected to time has not yet been born,” Charles replied, offering him an apologetic smile.

“Yeah- hey how do you know that?”

Charles smile turned a bit fond, “About ten years ago, we had an encounter with someone who came back from the future with the intention of changing it with the help of a mutant with that ability, however, the one who came back was the only person who could survive being sent back, because of his healing powers.” 

“Logan,” Clint said and grinned at the surprised look, “I know things, and he owes me a beer.”

“Yes, he came back to 1973 from far in the future, farther in the future than you, and helped to change things, for what I thought was the better,” he sighed, “But it appears we still have a long way to go.”

“Don’t feel too bad, Chuck, it takes time for humanity to change, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible,” he shrugged, “I don’t have anything against mutants despite getting attacked by some every other week.”

“Attacked?”

Clint shrugged, “I’m an Avenger, it’s a job hazard,” he said flapping his hand, “I work with the X-Men a lot too.”

“You’re not one of the X-Men?”

“Huh? Ah...no, I’m not a mutant,” he said arching an eyebrow, “I don’t even carry the x-gene.”

“I see,” he put a hand on his chin.

“Problem, ain’t it?” Clint drawled, “Magneto is still a big ‘I hate humans’ supporter in the future, so obviously nothing I do changes things.”

“Erik doesn’t hate humans, his wife was a human,” Charles said, somewhat distractedly.

“Ah...and his daughter?” 

“She was a mutant,” Charles said softly, “I saw what happened to them...she was upset at Erik being taken away and her mutation allowed her to communicate with animals, they sensed her distress and started attacking police,” he shook his head, “And one of them released an arrow and pierced them both, killing them instantly.”

“....an arrow? Are you shitting me right now? One single arrow killed both his wife and kid?” Clint asked and Charles looked at him and Clint put his hand to his face and let out a humorless laugh, “Oh my god, my life sucks.”

Charles just looked at him his expression unreadable and let Clint make a few faces and then took a deep breath to calm himself down.

“Fine, so...no way back and a soulmate who probably wants nothing to do with me, now what?” he asked, “I can’t just sit around and do nothing.”

“No, I suppose not,” Charles replied, then he cocked his head to the side, “I don’t think Erik hates you, it will simply take time for him to come to terms with things, that’s why he left you here, so you were safe.”

“Yeah,” he said, because he didn’t really want to argue, “Oh what happened to Apocalypse? I assume he’s gone?”

“Yes, thanks to the help of the others and Jean,” Charles said, “No need to fear.”

“Oh I wasn’t, I only knew who he was cause I looked him up in the future, he wasn’t even a big deal later.”

“No? Even after all he did?”

“Naw, the world went to shit, but was able to rebuild itself a little better,” Clint shrugged, “Took time, sure, but I mean, I don’t really remember. I’m technically three.”

“I see,” Charles said, “And if you are from 2016, that would make you-”

“36, yeah...at this point I didn’t think I was actually going to meet my soulmate to be honest...now I wonder if it would be better if I hadn’t…”

“I think you’re very intent on making this a bad thing, and I’m not sure if it’s because you’re incredibly insecure of if you’re worried about Erik,” Charles said rolling around more to face him, “But you must understand, the fact that you are here, that you have words exactly where his are, is a very big thing. You are here for something important, which makes you important.”

Clint couldn’t help but go a little pink, he wasn’t exactly used to being called out and then told he was important in one go, “Uh...well, when you put it like that…”

“I’ve stopped doubting the importance of certain things, and signs, and if you coming here, now, isn’t a sign then I’m really not sure what to think.”

Clint sighed, “Yeah...alright, well what do I do while I wait for Magnet Man to come back?”

“Well,, to start, there are several people who are very curious about you,” Charles said and Clint snorted.

“I bet there are; a random dude just showing up in the middle of the battle with - hey where’s my stuff?” he asked frowning, “If I lose that bow, Tony will kill me, plus I really like that bow.”

Charles gestured behind Clint and he turned and saw all of his stuff piled on a table by the wall, “Oh, okay, cool.”

“You have quite a few weapons,” he said and Clint shrugged.

“I was prepared to take out some hellhounds, they were all green and glowy and gross,” he replied and saw the British man frown.

“The Hounds of Fate..?” he asked and Clint nodded.

“That’s what Apocalypse called them,” he replied, “I didn’t really know what he meant.”

“Ah...well you see, my time spent in his head gave me insight to a lot of obscure knowledge, including that. The Hounds of Fate were in ancient mythology for several religions, they were meant as either signs that one's fate was approaching, or meant to lead someone to their fate,” he explained. “I imagine in your case, they were chasing you to your fate.”

“Haha, the man has jokes,” Clint shook his head, “I guess though, I mean it’s not like I would have willingly jumped over that rift any other time, and I was about to get across when something stopped my arrow, and then prevented me from moving, some kind of force.”

“Strange, how did it feel?”

“Well I didn’t feel anything in particular, just like I couldn’t move, and then I was falling and wasn’t really paying attention to that, and then poof, there I was falling into the 80s and into Magneto.”

“I see, well...I can only assume that it was meant to happen, and it only goes to prove my point from earlier.”

Clint gave him a look which was returned with a simple smile, “You’re a real piece of work, Xavier...alright so...I’m going to change and...let’s do this, I guess.”

“We have more comfortable clothes if you prefer,” he said, “Instead of your...uniform?”

“Yeah, and alright, I guess if I’m supposed to be sticking around I might as well get comfortable.”

 

He  _ was _ more comfortable wearing a shirt and jeans, with a button down over top, easy and not too 80s, thank god, he was glad he’d sort of missed the fashion, it was pretty wild. But then again, he had lived through the 90s. He would live in sweatpants if he could, but alas, that wasn’t socially acceptable, or professional, at least according to Natasha, and Coulson- and stopping that line of thought now. 

He made his way through the mansion, watching as mutant kids ran to their classes carrying books and bags, it was kind of nice to see normal, even if it was also very trippy. But according to Xavier, he’d been asleep for about a week, Apocalypse’s sleep would have lasted longer, but Charles had given him a bump to let him out sooner and Clint had just stayed asleep likely cause he was exhausted, that was probably why he felt so well rested now, but now he was was absolutely starving, heeerg.

But sadly his belly had to wait as he apparently had some people to talk to. As it so happened, he’d been off, unconscious, elsewhere during the battle against Apocalypse. He had no idea where and nor did Charles, he only spoke about how Erik had left the group after the megamutant’s defeat and returned with Clint, and had to explain he had no idea who he really was, just his name and that he had come out of nowhere right before the fight, which Clint could confirm now. So all of the others had seen him, and were naturally very curious.

He walked through the X-Mansion, taking note at the fact there was some construction happening in places and then recalled that the place had blown up recently, it looked like some rooms were finished while others were not, there were mutants helping to make it look nice again with whatever powers they had, that was pretty cool actually. Good way to learn how to use them.

All of the baby X-Men had gathered in one of the sitting rooms in the mansion, waiting for him, Charles had likely alerted them to him being awake, but he spotted Mystique first.

“Your hair is shorter,” he said, and she arched a blue eyebrow at him, “I’m just used to it being a little longer is all.” 

Her red hair morphed for a second and was longer, “Better?” she asked sarcastically.

“No, it’s still longer, and bright pink,” he drawled back.

“You’re full of shit,” she said and he snorted.

“How can you tell?”

“You look like you’re constipated,” she replied.

“Aaah, well, that can be a problem with age, but I hear the blues never go away,” he said and smiled shit-eatingly, “Sorry~.”

She barked out a laugh, “You’re not half bad, what was your name again?”

“Clint Barton, I’m three years old,” he said offering a hand, she arched an eyebrow, but did shake his hand back.

“Ah, because you’re from the future, Charles mentioned that,” she said and he nodded.

“Yep, here to do some shit, change something, hell if I know, but I’m full of future knowledge,” he shrugged, but was smirking, teasing. He glanced around again taking in the rest of the people gathered, Peter Maximoff, relaxed with a broken leg up on the coffee table Kurt Wagner next to him on the loveseat, Jean Grey and Scott Summers sitting on the couch with Storm sitting on the armrest, Mystique was sitting in an armchair, and Clint took the remaining one for himself. 

“Mmm, and what am I like in the future?” Mystique asked. Clint shrugged again.

“Don’t really know, I don’t actually get around here too much, I’ve known a few of you guys for awhile though,” he said and pointed out at them, “Peter for one- aaaand now I get the old man comment, god, how old are you?”

“Twenty-six,” he replied, his crutches next to him, “And you are an old man, if you’re from the future it’s gotta be pretty late if you’re three now. Which does make you an old man.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, Magneto spawn,” he drawled and saw his eyebrows pop up, even that was fast, good to know he slowed down a little when he was older. Slightly.

“You know that? Does he know?” he asked, his tone unsure.

“Wait you mean he doesn’t know yet?” Clint asked blinking, “Um...yeah, eventually I guess, from what I know you guys have a decent relationship, and by that I mean you don’t try to kill each other on a regular basis. Though I think Wanda has it out for him still.”

That got very wide eyes, “You...know about Wanda?”

“Who is Vanda?” Kurt asked quietly. Clint kept his mouth closed because whoops? 

“Uh...she’s...my twin sister,” Peter said awkwardly and ignored the surprised noises from the others, “Her...mutation is,” he sighed and shook his head. “It’s not good and she blames our father for it.”

“Eeeeh, I wouldn’t say it’s not good, just...incredibly powerful, too powerful, and without proper instruction it can lead to...well...craziness. I met her for a completely unrelated reason and well, she...had basically created this whole new reality and life for herself in another country she was convinced was true and helped a robot and her fake brother Pietro- wait is that you?”

Peter blinked, “Uh...yeah, that’s...that’s my birth name but like no one could pronounce it right so I just go by Peter. She...made a fake me?”

“Yeah, a little taller and hair a bit different but now that I’m looking, yeah, you...and well he died, that was fun-” he was cut off by Peter’s indignant squawk.

“Wanda killed me off?!” 

“The fake you, yes. It was very valiant,” Clint promised, “Saved me and a kid’s life, though when we got back to the US after she joined the Avengers you, the real you caught up with her and it was all kind of revealed that she had made a lot of it up, it was pretty trippy, but she gets help from Chuck and us and she’s a lot better now, a real hero, she’s actually pretty spectacular.”

That was the sparknotes version of it of course, after discovering the truth it had been pretty intense, but Clint had already accepted her as one of his people and couldn’t really be mad at her, he was upset, sure, watching someone die for you was well...but in the end, it had all worked out. She was amazing, and Clint suddenly missed her a lot. 

“That’s good to know, I guess,” Peter shrugged, still looking awkward.

“Yeah, but now that I think about it, she definitely does not look her age, yikes and to think I’ve kind of taken her under my wing as a younger sister type aaaand she’s older than me,” Clint facepalmed because of course. Whatever, he still loved her, she was a good person and she was important to him, even if she liked to go off and be with Vision most of the time.

“So...you know us all in the future?” Scott asked, skeptical, and wow Clint was not surprised, good to know he hadn’t changed much.

“Well...yeah, a little, never actually been  _ here  _ before, you guys usually come to us, or us to you, wherever you’re fighting.”

“Us?”

“The Avengers, the team I’m apart of, you’re the X-Men, we’re the Avengers, we team up and shit, it’s cool. I save your lives like, every other day, ya know, whatever, you’re welcome,” He grinned, obviously bullshitting.

“So you’re not a mutant?” Jean asked and Clint shook his head.

“Nooope, I’m like the most human to ever human, don’t even have the x-gene, so any kid I have isn’t likely to be one either. Not that I’m planning on kids. Speaking of...better be careful, all of you,” he said smirking and saw about half of the younger mutants turn red, or in Kurt’s case, purple. He snickered.

“You’re lying,” Scott said, and Clint smiled.

“Maybe, I mean come on guys...you gotta remember most of you are about 15 to 25 years older than me, and I'm from 30 years in the future, who knows what will happen in that time- and don’t even try reading my mind,” he pointed at Jean, “That’s cheating.”

“Or because you don’t know,” she replied and he stuck his tongue out at her, because yeah, he didn’t actually know. They never really talked about their personal lives while fighting, but surely some of them had procreated by then.

“Anyway...yeah…” he shrugged, “I don’t really know you guys in the future, outside of battles and camaraderie and stuff, like we hang out at parties that are covered by reporters and we chat, and save each other from aliens and missiles and mutant prison breakouts on a regular basis, but, I really don’t know you, ya know?” he said and then narrowed his eyes, “And now I’m sort of figuring out why...you all already know me, and couldn’t let on. You’re sneaky shits, all of you.”

He got a few grins in return and he sighed, slumping into his chair but returned the grins with one of his own, then frowned.

“Where’s Beasty? He was apart of the battle against Apocalypse right?” he asked, noticing the other blue mutant wasn’t there.

“He’s at a genetics summit of some kind,” Mystique replied, “He seemed very excited about it.”

“Aaah...the man gets uncomfortable in his jeans for genes, I get it.”

“Ewww…” Jean muttered, and Clint snickered. He was a child, he knew this.

“So, what are you doing here now?” Mystique asked changing the subject, “Charles said you had something important to do.”

“According to him,” Clint shrugged, “I dunno, I was just chased by some dogs, fell through a rift and then fell into Magneto, so...who the hell knows.”

“You  _ fell _ into him?” Mystique asked, looking surprised.

“Yeah, he caught me on the other side of the rift.”

“You are soulmates, are you not?” Storm asked from the couch and Clint blinked as everyone else turned to her and then back to him with wide eyes.

“You’re Erik’s soulmate?” Mystique asked, her eyes even wider than before.

“So my words tell me,” Clint said, then shrugged, “Not like it seems to be a big deal, apparently he is off mourning his family, who got killed by an arrow, a splendid time for an archer soulmate to pop up for him, I’m sure, so he’s taking whatever time he needs to come to terms with that.” He shook his head, he honestly could not blame the man for leaving.

“...really?” Jean asked softly, “That’s awful.”

“Yeah, so...he’s I dunno, and here I am, and I guess I get to help you guys with shit?” he shrugged, “I honestly have no idea.”

“That’s really weird, you’re my dad’s soulmate….and I’m older than you….by like, a lot,” Peter said, sounding unsure. 

“Yeah man, it’s really weird, and like yesterday- for me- you both,” he gestured between Peter and Kurt, “totally checked out my ass,” he said smirking, watching Peter splutter and Kurt’s eyes go wide and cheeks go purple, Clint couldn’t help but burst into laughter. Leaning back in his chair and tried to gain his breath back.

“Aaaah...nice,” he shook his head and then paused, “You knew,” he said to Peter, “You knew I was about to come back in time.”

“Huh?” 

“You totally did, that’s why you made the old man comment,” he said and then frowned, “Now see, that makes me wonder, ‘cause if you knew, and if all of you know that I go back in time and didn’t say anything, clearly this was supposed to happen…which means I’ve gotta be here for good reason right? And it’s clearly important enough for you all to keep your mouths shut and not make a single slip to me in the future until he called me an old man.”

“That’s possible, or we had our memories blocked, Charles has that ability,” Mystique said, “But whatever the case may be, yeah, you’re probably right, you’re here for a reason.”

“As long as it doesn’t happen soon, I’m useless like this…” Peter muttered having recovered from Clint’s joke, he scowled down at his broken leg, Kurt put his hand over Peter’s, offering comfort, but it was clearly still very new. Peter accepted it with a little grin. Awwww, they were so cute. 

“What you need is Logan’s powers,” Clint said grinning, and then saw Jean and Scott glance at each other.

“Who is Logan?” Kurt asked, and he wasn’t the only one who looked confused. Huh, interesting.

“Ah...the Wolverine?” Clint clarified, “He’s a mutant with a healing power so good no one actually knows how old he is and has ‘knives in his hands’?” If that wasn’t recognizable then he didn’t know how to describe him.

He noticed Mystique didn’t say anything, so he was sure she knew who he was, and Scott and Jean, well they weren’t saying anything either, but did look curious. Very interesting.

“Ooooh, him, I think I met him ten years ago?” Peter said shrugging. “But otherwise, no clue.”

“Huh...and here I thought everyone knew him...I guess just not yet,” he shrugged, “Jerk still owes me a drink too.” He sighed.

“Alright, well now that we’ve covered that...tell us what the future is really like, like what happens?” Scott asked, clearly changing the subject. Subtle. 

“Aliens and robots attack like every other week, um...a lot more super people,” he shrugged, “Shinier cars? Different fashion, Oh! Better effects in movies- wait what year is it again? ‘83? Oh my god, if I’m here long enough, I can TOTALLY go to the premiere of Back to the Future- holy shit I’m Marty Mcfly...that’s heavy.” and then he lost it in hysterics.

“You alright there?” Mystique asked and Clint waved her off, getting his breath back again.

“Yeah...yeah, thank god my parents are already together and I’m born already or I’d really be fucked,” he shook his head, then hummed, “Actually...I might need to take a little trip,” he rubbed his chin, wouldn’t that be interesting, what his life would be like if his dear old dad had had an accident right about now, he wondered if he could-

“You can’t do that!” Jean gasped and Clint’s eyes turned to her, narrowed.

“Hasn’t the Professor taught you it’s rude to read people’s minds without their permission?” he asked, voice flat, he saw her go slightly pink but apparently that wasn’t enough.

“Y-yes, but you can’t just think things like that!” she said and Clint crossed his arms.

“Uh, yes, I can,” he said bluntly, “I can think whatever the hell I want, just because you can read it does not give you the right to police my thoughts.” 

“I’m not, I was just- you can’t kill your father!” she said quickly and quietly, but everyone else still heard and the entire room tensed. Clint sighed internally then he leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees and then linked his hands together, looking straight at the red-headed mutant.

“I’m not an idiot,” he said, “As much satisfaction it would bring me to put an arrow through my sperm donor’s eye, and his other eye, and probably his dick, I know doing that would probably change my own future, which is the number one rule of time travel not to break, I’ve seen enough SciFi to know that; don’t fuck with your own timeline. So I won’t be going off on a revenge driven bender to kill my own father, but...I am allowed to fantasize about it to my heart's content and if you don’t like it... _ don’t read my mind _ .”

Several of the others were uncomfortable, he could tell, the only one who wasn’t seemed to be Mystique, she seemed more intrigued, which Clint did not find too surprising.

“I’m sorry,” Jean said and she did seem sorry and Clint sighed, maybe he was too hard on her, he didn’t actually know her, god she was a teenager wasn’t she? Gah. 

“I accept your apology,” he said and then let out a huff of air, “And I realize you’re still learning to control your powers, but please stay out of my head...I’ve had more people in there already than I’d like, I really don’t need, or want more.”

She nodded, looking down, “I’m sorry,” she said again softly, and well at least now he knew she wouldn’t be doing that again.

“Whelp, now that that’s out in the open,” he drawled he looked at them all, because clearly declaring he was okay with fantasizing about murdering someone, and that someone being his father made him seem like a psychopath, he supposed explaining might be nice, “My dad was, is an abusive asshole who used to, or will beat me, my mother and my brother on a regular basis while getting increasingly more drunk as my life went on- goes on, goddamn tenses, until he killed himself and my mother by drunkenly driving and wrapping the family car around a tree, orphaning me and my brother when I’m six,” he explained, “He is not a good person, at the age of four, he’ll slam my head against the wall hard enough to make me deaf for a very long time, I recovered but sometimes I still have hearing problems. So I think I have every right to use my imagination for a coping mechanism. At least...that’s what my therapist said, as long as I don’t actually take any action. So...yeah, there’s some of my dirty laundry, to be fair, I have a lot worse, so if that scares you...now’s your chance to run.” 

There was a long moment of silence, as it was a lot to take in, Clint knew that, but it was the truth, and after all of that, well, it seemed fair.

“Damn, dude,” Peter said breaking the silence, “And I thought I had daddy issues.”

Clint snorted, “Ha, no. I have even more after that,” he shook his head, “Me and Tony joke about making a club for most of the Avengers, Daddy Issues run rampant there.”

“Tony?”

“Oh, Tony Stark, er...he’d be about seven right now I think, oh no eight,” Clint said, “I’m sure you’ve heard of him.”

“Well...yeah, his father is Howard Stark, the multi-millionaire,” Peter said, “Kind of all over the news, like always.”

“Yeah, Howard wasn’t a good daddy either,” Clint said, “And then Bruce Banner, probably haven’t heard of him, his dad was, I’d say, the worst. And then Thor, yeah, you heard right, Thor the God of Thunder from Norse mythology...he’s a real dude.” He grinned, “Has the hammer and everything, Odin is his daddy, and he’s also an asshole.”

“You’re full of shit,” Mystique said, and Clint shook his head.

“Nu-uh, not this time, he’s real, he was here like three thousand years ago or something and that introduced them into our mythology, and now they’re back because of...other things. But I’m totally serious, and Captain America is there too.”

“Now you’ve got to be lying, the supersoldier from World War II?” Scott said, once again skeptical.

“Yep! That’s the one,” Clint said cheerfully, “I love how you guys can’t take any of this but you’re all mutants and two of you are blue and one of you can control the weather and one can read minds, but oh lord, if a god and a super soldier from the past show up, I’m lying,” he shook his head, “Madness.”

“It’s just…” 

“Weird?” Clint offered, “Strange? Well that is the world we live in, wanna know what’s really weird? I’m the soulmate of one of the most well known human hating mutants alive, and I am so human it’s gross. But hey, C’est la vie. Fate is a bit of an asshole.” 

“Erik doesn’t hate humans, he just doesn’t trust them,” Mystique said, “After all he’s been through, it makes sense.”

“Sure...I mean humans are assholes, but I’ve met plenty of mutants who are assholes too…” he shook his head, now was not the time to get into human/mutant politics, “Anyway...is there food around here? I’m starving.”

“Yeah, sure, I can show you to the kitchen,” Mystique said getting up, and gesturing for him to follow her.

He waved at the others and followed after her, she took him into the kitchen and gestured around in a ‘help yourself’ kind of way.

“Wow, what a show of hospitality,” he drawled and then went to snoop through the cupboards to see what he had to work with, “So, you gonna give me a shovel talk?”

He glanced at her to see that eyebrow arched at him, “Why would you ask that?”

“I’m no stranger to your history, I know you and Magneto are close, how close, no clue, but I know you’re friends at least. Help each other out a lot.”

“Try to kill each other a lot too,” she replied, taking a seat at the counter.

“Oh then you’re real good friends,” he said smirking, he chuckled at her eyeroll and found some cereal first, and well that was a good option but he kept looking.

“Sure,” she said and was quiet for a long moment he could feel her eyes on him, “You seem to be...opposed to the idea of being soulmates with him.”

“Well...yeah,” he sighed, “I guess opposed isn’t the right word, I’m just accepting of the fact that I know it’s not gonna work out, I must be here for some other reason.”

“How do you know?”

“Cause I’m me and he’s him?”

“What do you really know about him?” she asked back and Clint shrugged.

“Born in 1935, god he’s old, Jewish, held at Auschwitz, his history in the files is a bit foggy after that, he was the suspect in unconfirmed rumors of Nazis ending up dead all over Europe until um...Cuba, right, you were there for that, then he killed JFK, escaped prison, later attacked Nixon, which you were the hero at, um the whole Apocalypse mess, and then there’s some other stuff I can’t mention cause it hasn’t happened yet. He likes gathering mutants together and then attacking people who, admittedly, are total assholes to mutants, but he doesn’t have a track record of being careful about it, civilian casualties are pretty high when he’s concerned. I respect that he wants to look out for Mutants, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of other lives,” he said, shrugging, “Statistically speaking, we’re not a good match.”

“So you don’t know anything about him personally?” she asked and he snorted.

“I’ve never been in the same room as him before, and it’s not like I ever did any research on him? I never thought I’ve ever really encounter him, we always leave his bullshit to you guys,” he replied finding bread, and ham, and cheese, yessss.

“Mmm, well, I do know him, and all of what you said doesn’t give the whole story, you’re-”

“Judging him based off the actions he took in scenarios that I have no context for, right?” he shook his head, “Yeah, well I’m human, so sue me, it’s what we do, judging people based on their actions not on their reasons behind them.” 

“Hmm, maybe that’s why he doesn’t like humans,” she replied and he turned and gave her a look.

“You’re full of shit now, because guess what, when I said human I meant more people on this planet as a whole, mutants do it too, so you can shut your pretty blue face up,” he said going back to making his sandwich.

“You think I’m pretty like this?” she asked, and he didn’t even have to look up, he knew that tone, and those words, honestly did all redheads know how to use that line?

“That’s a trap question if I’ve ever heard it, but sure, yeah, you’re attractive,” he then did look up, “The scales are probably what most people balk at, huh? But they’re kinda ethereal, you know? Okay do not take this the wrong way, but in the future, people love mermaids, and it’s a trend for people to use makeup to put scales all over themselves, it’s pretty cool actually. And I’m pretty used to it, all considering. I think they’re neat, so yeah, I think you’re pretty.”

He clearly had surprised her, “Oh,” was all she said, “Back to my point.”

“Oh yeah that, trying to sell me on Magneto, please carry on,” he drawled, putting the finishing touches on his sandwich and now looking for some chips.

“You’re scared of him,” she said and he barked out laugh.

“Fuck yeah, I’m scared of him, of all the shit I know about him, he wouldn’t think twice in trying to kill me if I piss him off. Soulmate or no.” 

“He wouldn’t,” she said and he gave her a skeptical look.

“Are you sure?”

She paused for a moment and then nodded, “Yes,” she said and she did sound it this time, “He’s suffered more than most, but that doesn’t make him incapable of change.”

“I’m not here to change him,” he said staring at her.   
“Then what are you here for?”

“I don’t know, that’s my whole problem,” he replied rolling his eyes.

She didn’t reply to that, only sat in silence as he found some chips and then started to gorge himself on his sandwich, letting his own mind wander.

And that was the crux of the matter, what had been on his mind since he’d woken up, he was in the past and had absolutely nothing to go on in finding out why he was here, except for a soulmate who clearly had more issues to work through than Clint in a bad year. It couldn’t just be to figure out the soulmate thing, that was some extreme measures for soulmate shit, Fate wasn’t typically that involved in individual pairs anyway, so it had to be something else, maybe nothing even related to his soulmate, maybe that had been meant as a perk of some kind? Fuck it if he knew, he didn’t care, he was pretty sure that was something he didn’t want to mess with. He had to be here for something else.

The only problem was he didn’t know what, and he didn’t know what to do to find out, and he didn’t think anyone else would either. Making him effectively stranded in 1983, away from his team, away from anyone who could help, and with a whole new set of problems.

Why did his life suck?  _ Uhg. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: May 15th


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for the positive feedback! Gotta a pretty long chapter for you today, kinda...detectivey. ;D  
> And I promise Mags will appear next chapter.

“So...you want me to help with your guys’ training?” Clint asked cocking his head to the side as he saw all of the young X-Men wandering around the Danger Room.

Mystique arched an eyebrow at him, “I was thinking train with…” she said and Clint arched his eyebrows back at her.

“Same thing, but I mean...come on, I know things, and you guys don’t know shit about me, you could learn a lot…” he said, shrugging, trailing off to try and make the offer more tantalizing.

“And how do you think you can help a whole bunch of mutants train with their powers?” Mystique asked, crossing her arms, skeptical.

He sighed, then gestured at her, “Five minutes, you guys do your thing...then all of them...against me.”

“Really?” she asked, grinning, “You think you can beat all of us?”

He shrugged.

“Ha, fine,” she said then walked to the others and issued a few orders, they all took stances and then started in on the exercise, Clint watched each one of them intensely for about forty five seconds, then five minutes later they ended the simulation.

“Alright, X-Men, now we’re going to take on Hawkeye, the archer from the future,” Mystique said in a drawl as they all turned to him. Scott smirked under his visor.

Clint smirked back. This would be fun.

“Bring it,” Clint said stepping into the danger room and grinning like a maniac. He was well rested and he was fully armed with his armor from the future, and they were all still in training. The only one he thought he’d honestly have trouble with was Mystique, and that was because her fighting style was basically every fighting style ever, but he had intentionally said ‘them’ and not her. After all they were the ones in training.

“Aren’t you gonna use your bow?” Scott asked, frowning when everyone else was in place and he just stood there, bow slung over his back.

“Won’t need it.”

“That confident are you?” he scoffed.

“Yep.”

Scott scowled and Clint only grinned more, he moved slightly so he wasn’t facing them head on, but otherwise, didn’t do anything else.

“Start!” Mystique barked and Clint snapped into action, he snagged one of his hand restraints and snapped it at Jean before she could get her hand to her forehead, a second later she was squeaking and had her hands behind her back. While she could use her powers without the help of her hand to her forehead, Clint knew at this point it was still what helped her concentrate, a placebo that without she found things a bit difficult. He’d noticed earlier her hand had been knocked away and her powers had stopped, clearly it was mental, but it was enough for the moment.

Next he went for Storm, running straight for her, then dodging at the last second to roll and jump up behind her, he snagged up her cape and then threw it over her head, then also got her wrists behind her back. She couldn’t see or move her hands, therefore incapacitated for the moment.

Next came Kurt, he was a bit more difficult without an arrow, but Clint had it covered, he finally did have to pull out a weapon, one of his arrowheads, he activated it and threw it right where Kurt bamf’d to. Kurt had a bad habit of telegraphing his movements, so Clint knew exactly where he was going to be and was able to get the netting around him the second he reappeared.

Finally it was Scott, he was probably the easiest one, he got off one of his blasts and then Clint was at him and swept his feet with a leg, then pulled off his visor.

In total, it took him about three minutes and forty seven seconds to take them down, probably would have been longer if Peter had been involved, little shit, but he still managed.

“Tadaaaa!” he said, grinning as he stood up, trying not to laugh at all of the teens on the ground, “Really I know how you guys fight later and well that’s in like thirty years, you’re kind of shit right now. Good to know you get better with age.”

“How did you do zat?” Kurt asked, blinking at him in shock through the net, which he could have bamf’d out of, but seemed to be in too much shock to think of that.

“Well frankly, I was being kind of an ass, cheated really, didn’t give any of you a chance to get going or fight back, but that’s because I knew that Jean can mess a dude up real easy with only a thought, and Storm can shoot freaking lightning and summon storms and shit even inside, and you can get people into shit and leave them there, Scott is probably the easiest take to out. But if I was an actual bad guy I wouldn’t really play fair either.”

“Fuck you,” Scott said, pretty clearly upset at being taken down so easily, “And give me back my visor.”

Clint shrugged, “Sorry man, but it’s true. Your power comes from your eyes which means you have to look at what you want to shoot, the moment you can’t open your eyes, you’re incapacitated. So...you need to learn how to fight without them.”

“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” he snapped.

“I can teach you,” Clint replied, “Actually...I think I did…” he scratched his chin, “Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I did- do. Whatever, you’ll get the hang of it. As for you,” he pointed at Jean, “You are the strongest mutant here, as I’m sure you know, you could take everyone out with ease, you don’t need to be so dependant on your concentration help,” he mimicked the hand to the forehead thing she, and Charles, did, “Though you’re also real hesitant, we can work on that if you want- you doing archery yet?”

“Yes,” she said also looking at him with big eyes.

“Awesome we can work on that together, should help,” he nodded then looked at Storm, “You honestly are probably good, just don’t let anyone get near you, which means you could do well with some hand to hand? I can do that or Mystique, you’d probably be fine.”

“Okay,” she replied, having managed to get her cape off her head at least, “Can you let us out?”

“Oh, god, yeah, sorry.” He went over to Scott first and gave him back his visor, then Jean and Storm, then he pulled the net off of Kurt, “You need to stop telegraphing your actions, I knew exactly where you were going because you showed me with how you moved, easiest way to make it confusing is make it look like you’ll go anywhere, rather than nowhere, because once people know what you can do, they will know you’ll go, they just don’t know where, unless you show them.” he said with a nod, helping the blue mutant up off the floor.

“Now am I allowed to help, teacher?” he drawled at Mystique.

“Yeah...I guess so,” she replied, “Don’t you want a go at me?”

“...I’m good.”

“Know you can’t beat me?” she asked, smirking, and he shook his head.  
“No...I know I can only beat you once...I want to be able to use it when it matters,” he replied and she let out a laugh.

“Fair enough, alright _Mister_ Barton...where should they start?” she asked and he grinned and popped his knuckles enthusiastically.

The others looked uncomfortable, he had to try very hard not to cackle. This might be fun.

 

Clint helped them train three days a week, and then helped them all out individually, he was glad he had something to do, then he didn’t have to worry about the shit that was his soulmate relationship, or rather, lack of.

Magneto was gone, and hadn’t been back since he’d dropped Clint off or whatever. Clint thought that was a pretty good sign that he didn’t really want Clint in his life and if that was how it was, then fine. Clint wasn’t going to get his boxers in a twist over it.

Except, that after about a month and a half of staying at the school he started feeling...antsy.

He really wasn’t sure why, he was busy, for the most part helping out at the school, teaching a little bit of the other students too here or there if he thought he could help, but he should have been fine. Except he wasn’t. He felt like he needed to do something.

“Maybe you should go after him,” Mystique said, totally ignoring the face he made at her from across the counter in the kitchen, “I may know Erik well, Charles knows him better, only because he’s been in his head, but I can’t actually tell you what the best option is.” She moved her coffee cup around her hands, glancing over the rim as she took a sip and looked at him.

“I am not going to be one of _those_ soulmates,” he said with a scoff.

“One of ‘those’?” she repeated, and he only made another face at her, “I’m somewhat surprised that you didn’t automatically think you were meant to be enemy soulmates.”

He sighed, “That would have probably been easier to be honest, he coulda killed me and then be done with it...but no...I know he wasn’t.”

“Oh?” she asked, “I didn’t think it was possible to know beforehand.”

Clint sighed and took a sip of his own drink before explaining.

“Steve Rogers, Captain America, he has three, his best friend Bucky and then his lover Tony Stark.... The other was the Red Skull,” he said, “All three of them are very different, he told us once that he was shocked by Tony’s because when Red Skull’s activated he grew ice cold, but Tony’s was hot, red hot like fire. They were both so very opposite he didn’t know what to do, and they were both so much of a shock compared to Bucky who was fiercely warm and protective,” He sighed and traced the top of his cup with a finger.

“My best friend, Natasha Romanov, she got hers a long time ago, well actually probably pretty soon now, or- I actually don’t know her exact timeline. But anyway, she said it felt like it spread through her whole body leaving acceptance, warmth and the feeling of contentment or safety, Same with her soulmate Bucky.”

“Bruce Banner says he felt peace when he touched Betty,” he continued and then held up his fingers counting, “So...we have Steve drowning himself in the arctic, freezing himself for about seven decades to save the world from his arch nemesis’ evil plot, then he and Tony are like fire, they burn bright, loud and fast, they are perfect for each other, except when they’re not. Natasha and Bucky understand each other and accept each other for what they are, who they were made to be, better than anyone else possibly could, and Bruce needs some kind of peace in his life...so...my theory is that when you finally hear those words...you get a preview of what your life is supposed to be with them or because of them. And well… there was no terrible feeling of doom and gloom or death or fear or whatever...so I know we’re not meant to be enemies.”  

“What did you feel?” she asked softly.

“I can’t remember I was too out of it,” he said and knew she didn’t buy it if the look she gave him was any indication, he sighed again, “Warmth...and how I assume it feels...to come home.”

“Hmmm,” Mystique said taking another sip of coffee.

“You’re not allowed to tell him that,” Clint said, “The only reason I’m telling you is because you remind me of Natasha and I tell her everything anyway.”

“I’m flattered,” she said and he rolled his eyes.

“Uh-huh, you and her just remind me of my age old adage of ‘Never trust a redhead’,” he sighed, “Brother taught me that.”

“Oh?” she asked, with a laugh, “How’s that?”

“He was a redhead too.”

She laughed harder. He smirked around his coffee glad to have changed the subject because he hadn’t meant to spout about that, but now it was in the open and he couldn’t do anything about it.

 

The antsy feeling didn’t leave, in fact it became so prominent that he even went to Charles to ask him if he knew what was up, because he was accepting of the fact that it probably wasn’t him, he was busy, he had a comfortable place to rest, he should have been doing great. So the problem was bigger than just him, it likely involved his other half.

“I’m afraid not, my friend. Everyone and every soulbond is different,” he said, “But...if you think he could be in danger?”

Clint shrugged, “I...don’t know? The thought didn’t actually cross my mind,” he didn’t think Magneto got in trouble, at least not the kind Clint was used to.

“I see, well, Cerebro is almost finished from the rebuild, we might be able to find him, depending on whether he's wearing his helmet or not.”

“Hmmmm. I keep seeing all of the construction, the whole place blew up then?”

“Yes, the entire building, unfortunately, it was...not good, we lost one of our own... but we are back to almost full function, so that won’t be a problem again, and Erik was around long enough to help us rebuild it and I assume to make sure you were safe, but then he left.”

“Aaaah...I hope you know that the school blowing up is not a singular occurrence.”

“What?” Charles looked startled.

“Also good to know that he stuck around,” he said and then shook his head, it sort of sounded like he was maybe waiting around for Clint, and when he didn’t wake up lost hope and just...went off? Disappointment through and through. Again.

“What do you mean, it will blow up again?” Charles asked, Clint ignored him.

“You know...I could just be needing to get out, stretch a bit, I could check out some of the local crime, see what’s up this decade, save some people, ya know, be all heroic and shit.”

“Clint Barton you tell me exactly what you meant!”

“And spoil all the surprises?” he gasped then shook his head, “I honestly don’t remember when exactly it’s blown up, or who it hurts or why...I just know it’s more than once. Kind of a hazard of it being home to mutants with extraordinary powers and the base of operations for a mutant superhero team. Tough luck, Chuck.”

Charles took a deep calming breath, “Very well, fine, you go off and do what you think you need to, just try not to be too...conspicuous, I suppose you will need some faked documents regarding your existence.”

“That would be helpful, thank you,” he said, sincerely, having a driver’s license would be nice, “Hmm, probably something to cover my face too, just in case,” he said, because honestly no one needed to have evidence of him being here, timeline complications would be annoying, he would be careful too, but even he made mistakes sometimes. A lot of the time...most of the time.

“I think that can be easily accommodated,” Charles replied, looking at Clint expectantly, knowing some of his inner turmoil was at the forefront of his mind.

“Thank you,” he said and then sighed, damn psychics knowing shit, “Are you...doing this because you want to help or…”

“Because you are Erik’s soulmate?” Charles finished for him and Clint nodded, it had crossed his mind, they had no real obligation to be this nice to him, or do all they had. Time traveler from the future or not, they were being incredibly accommodating. “Truthfully, it was because he asked us to watch you, but now, I know it’s because you are meant to be here, with us, the others...they have come so far in such a short time thanks to your tutelage, I truly believe you were meant to help them.”

“Well...I mean, I guess, but that can’t be all,” he shrugged, “They would have gotten there on their own, just slower, I guess.”

“Indeed, and it could be that you coming here, teaching them those necessary skills is because they will be needing them sooner,” Charles replied.

“Point,” Clint sighed and rubbed his face, “This all is really weird for me, I just...don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

Charles rolled his chair closer to him and leaned forward, “I’m sure it is, this can’t be easy for you, away from your team and your life, thrown into something bigger you don’t understand.”

“Actually no, all of that is pretty normal for me...it’s the lack of direction that’s driving me nuts,” he replied dryly, shaking his head, “My whole life has been a series of me being thrown into situations where I have nothing to stand on and have to just get shit done, but I always know that it’s for a reason: to get to the other side, to not go to jail, to get paid, to save lives...whatever, but this time...I don’t know. The whole thing with Magneto is just a bit grey blob of ‘shit I don’t know’ and I don’t really like that, I want to know at least where I stand...where to even go from here, but I honestly have no clue.”

“I see,” Charles said, “Well, unfortunately that’s not something you can get with me, you’d need to talk to Erik for those answers.”

“I’ll get right on that,” Clint drawled, and Charles shook his head.

“He’ll be back, but you might need to go do whatever calms you before then, and getting you papers to make you legal is something we should do anyway, so you can move about freely,” Charles smiled, “But you should perhaps just follow what you think you should do.”

“Ooooh, follow my heart, of course, sensei,” he drawled.

“I was going to say follow your instincts, but whatever makes you happy,” Charles replied back amused, Clint rolled his eyes.

“Alright...how long is it going to take?” he asked and Charles shrugged.

“A few hours at most,” he replied, “I think you should take some time out for you,” he said, “To do whatever you need to, I do not think you will be leaving us any time soon.”

“Yeah...I hate it, but you’re probably right,” Clint sighed, “I’ll just...do what I always do, I suppose...wait it out.”

And that’s what he had to do, he really had no other choice if there was no one who could send him back, and he had to be here, he assumed no attempts would bring him back anyway. So he’d have to just do whatever Fate wanted him to do, he wasn’t sure what the X-Men went through recently, he couldn’t remember exactly, nothing major, like all of the other things otherwise he would have known, he knew major events for the X-Men but nothing small.

He really wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to do, so he’d just do what he normally did, and that was save some people and eat some of the food he was pretty sure didn’t exist in the future, good lord did he miss the original Reese’s before they changed the recipe. He’d have to gorge himself a little.

But for now, he was going to go find some bad guys to shoot at.

 

As it turned out, the 80s, when not under attack by crazed supermutants, were really freaking boring. He’d stopped at least five purse snatchers, two convenience store hold ups, a few muggings, a couple gangbangs, and a few petty things, it was kind of annoying really, not having a real job to do.

It reminded him too much of when he was a teenager, freshly abandoned by his mentor and betrayed by his brother, again. It had left him lost, listless and lacking well...everything. He’d eventually turned to being a gun- or bow- for hire, and done most anything, until he’d crossed the wrong person and had to pay them back or die, he’d had to turn to the one thing he hadn’t wanted to. Assassination. However, it had been the biggest payout, and given him an actual reputation which had likely saved him in the end.

It was not a pleasant thing, assassinating people, and he hadn’t done it often when he first started out. He knew his headcount through his whole life, SHIELD included, and he hated to consider every time that number increased, but back then he felt like he had no purpose in being good, or doing things in a clean way. He was a disappointment, he wasn’t meant to be good, or happy. So he just carried on until SHIELD had gotten their hands on him. Looking back, that had been one of the hardest times in his life, probably because he was so alone.

But he wasn’t now, despite being away from his team, and Natasha, who he missed desperately, but was doing his best not to think about, because then he knew he’d just be a mess. He didn’t know when he’d see her again, and that hurt. But being friends with Mystique sort of filled up that hole.  
At least Nat would have plenty of time with Bucky, everyone would have time to spend with their soulmate without Clint tagging along like a spare wheel.

He would never tell any of them, but he did sometimes feel like he got in the way of them. They tried to include him, to make him feel apart of the whole, but it was so hard when the whole was made up of smaller wholes, and he was the only one who was a half.

It was hard for him not to think of what it would be like for the team without him, probably better, he wouldn’t be getting in the way, and eventually, they could forget he’d been there at all.

But he had to stop the feelings of inadequacy and insecurity taking over to make his thoughts spiral out of control because he knew that wasn’t true. Nat may not be his soulmate, but she was his partner and friend, and they cared for each other, something they’d gained all on their own, it wasn’t something Fate dictated for them, and it made it just as important.

He knew that.

He just had to keep reminding himself of that.

And distracting himself with helping until he could get whatever he needed to done and return to them, and carry on with life like he knew he would was all he could do about it.

 

Clint taught the kids three days a week still and then went out and solved crimes and shit the rest of the week, it kept him beyond busy, and really, he couldn’t do anything else, it wasn’t like he could go to SHIELD and ask for a mission or use their resources to find out a way back or see what he may need to do. It was probably a good idea to stay off their radar entirely. If it was 1983 it meant that Peggy Carter was still the Director of SHIELD, and Clint was not going to risk getting on her bad side so he’d stay 3 years old and beyond her radar.

So he went around using the alias that Charles had made for him, Cliff Benson, 34 years old from Warren, Iowa. He had a Driver’s License and was even in the system with one parking ticket. High school diploma, a work history. They were very thorough, Clint appreciated it.

He didn’t plan on getting in trouble with the law, but well, it was him.

So far however, he’d been fine, he’d not even had any close calls, it was kind of nice.

Charles had also been nice enough to give him some cash and an emergency credit card, Clint didn’t think he’d need to use it, but it was nice to have someone looking out for him like that, it made it easier to focus on other things.

He’d been able to help out a lot of people with little things, nothing superhero worthy. Aside from beating down the baddies, he’d helped a lady with a flat tire, a man with a broken radio and helped a little boy find his mom after getting lost.

It was little things but at least it made him feel like he was doing something of value.

That didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy sitting in a coffee shop every once in awhile and enjoy a local brew. He was kind of glad Starbucks hadn’t taken over yet, though local coffee shops weren’t all that common either so today he was in a diner that still had that ‘home sweet home’ appeal to it, the food was great and the coffee was pretty good too. Nothing compared to the French pressed, freshly ground, imported from a different part of the world each shipment stuff Tony got in the future. God, Clint was spoiled.

He let out a sigh and took another sip trying not to think about how fucked up his life was when he let the conversations of the other patrons wash over him.

“...said that he can’t afford a new car until he sells the old one, but it’s such a hunk of junk I doubt he’ll sell it…”

“...totally get it! Oh my gosh it was so cute on you! Like, radical, seriously babe, you need it.”

“Aha, alright stop trippin’ I will! Mom is gonna freak!”

“...went missing. I don’t know what to do, can you please put this in your window? If anyone asks give them my number.”

Clint turned away from his coffee to look at the woman standing at the counter talking to what he assumed was the owner, he looked apologetic.

“I’ll do what I can miss, really, but I gotta think of my business too,” he said and the woman nodded accepting that.

“I’m just...so worried, he’s been gone for days, and the police can’t do anything, I just-” she dissolved into tears at that point and Clint had finished his coffee, so why not.

Clint stood from his booth and left a few bucks on the table before moving to the counter, “Excuse me, Ma’am, I couldn’t help but overhear that someone you know is missing?”

The woman turned to him, her eyes rimmed red and her face blotchy, “Who are you?”

“My name is Cliff, I’m a detective of a sort,” he replied, it wasn’t really a lie, he’d helped find people plenty of times before, while he had had better resources, he thought he could maybe try out some old school detective work, he’d done plenty to avoid detectives, he could try from the other side.

“You can find my son?” she asked, her eyes lighting up with hope, “Please?”

“I can certainly try,” he said, “Let’s find a seat and you can tell me everything.”

 

David Mathews, Male, 12, brown hair, green eyes, last seen wearing an AC/DC t-shirt and jeans, making his way home from the local arcade at approximately 9:30 pm last Friday night, had an obsession with Mad Magazine, likes He-Man and was an ace at pinball.

It wasn’t really much to go on, he’d have to talk to whoever was at the arcade that night, and then go from there. Yikes.  

But he did actually want to help, a mother looking for her kid, desperate to make sure he came home safe, that was something he was going to damn well try and help with. He was a superhero after all, and he was a firm believer that it wasn’t the big actions that made a man, it was the little ones.

He headed to the arcade first, it was a pretty decent sized one, with four different pinball machines and some skeeball, Pac-Man, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Clint would have loved to come here as a kid, and well, now; if he didn’t have something to do.

He walked up to the counter to the man working there, “Hey, I’m looking for anyone who was working last Friday night.”

“That’da been me,” the man said, he had to have been in his late forties, but he was pretty clean cut for looking like a washed out hippie.

“Awesome,” Clint flicked up the picture of the kid his mom gave him, “You remember him?”

The man squinted at it, “Ah, hey yeah, that’s Davie, he’s in here all the time, haven’t seen him much lately though.”

“Yeah, that’s cause he’s missing,” Clint said dryly, “When did he leave on Friday?”

“What?” his eyes widened, “What do you mean he’s missing?”

“Last time he was seen was on Friday night, leaving your arcade, so you need to tell me when he left.”

“Shit...that’s awful,” he muttered and then realized Clint was still waiting, “Yeah, yeah ‘course, man, he left around nine? Yeah, just beat his high score on the pinball, was feeling pretty hot, I think…” he frowned a bit then.

“Yeah?” Clint prompted, “Anything else you can remember?”

“You know...there was another guy in here that night, besides Dave’s friends, had to have been in his twenties, nice clothes...didn’t see them talk though, but I’d never seen him around before.”

“What did he look like?” Clint asked, because that was both good and bad.

“Hada been ‘bout yay tall,” he held his hand up to a little taller than Clint, “Pretty thin though, and had bright blond hair, didn’t see his eyes, but he was in like fancy clothes, church clothes, ya know? Button up and some slacks, he was looking ‘round, but didn’t say nothing, didn’t talk to no one, he left probably ‘bout…fifteen-twenty minutes before Davie. You think he mighta...took him?”

“I don’t know, sir, I’m just trying to figure things out, trying to save the kid,” he said honestly, “Are any of Davie’s friends around today?”

“Uh, yeah, there’s John, and Freddie over there on Pac-Man,” he said pointing to two kids who were on one of the machines, Clint nodded and walked over to them.

“Hey guys,” he said and the both looked over at him, “How’s it going?”

“Fine,” the dirty blond one said, “What you want?”

“I’m looking for Davie. You guys seen him? His mom is awful worried.”

They looked at each other again, worried, then the other turned back to Clint, his dark brown eyes deeply concerned, “No, he hasn’t been anywhere in the last couple a days, we thought he was at our hideout, but he wasn’t.”  

“Why would he be there?” Clint asked, and he shrugged.

“He goes there when he’s upset about his dad,” he replied, “We were talking about it earlier and it made sense but when he didn’t come home and we checked he wasn’t there...we were hoping he’d just come back here...”

“Gotchya,” Clint replied figuring Davie’s dad was either a deadbeat, gone, or dead, “You think you guys can show me the way he walks home, and where your hideout is?”

They glanced at each other, “Well...”

“I’ll get you guys some food after, I’m also kinda hungry myself,” he hummed, “But we should try and do our best to find your friend, yeah?”

“Yeah, alright,” the one playing said he turned around, “I’m Freddie, this is John,” he gestured at the other boy, who’d been more talkative.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Cliff,” Clint said smiling, “Alright, let’s start, what’s the route he usually took home from here?”

“This way,” they waved at him to follow and he nodded at the arcade owner and followed after the kids.

 

John and Freddie turned out to be quite worried for their friend, they’d looked at the hideout every day since he’d disappeared, turned out he might have been there, because according to them, a few things were missing, some snacks, his knife and a few of their action figures. The hideout was just a treehouse that was built between two trees in a nearby forest next to the town, they’d built it themselves, and their parents knew about it, but they spent all summer here most of the time.  
Davie’s walk home went past the path that led to it, and there hadn’t been any evidence of him on the path home, so he’d had to have come to the hideout, but after that the trail was a lot more confusing.

But after following all the other trails they had, like the one to the creek, and the one to the climbing tree there was nothing there.

So Clint took the boys to McDonald’s and bought them some food as promised, asking if anything weird had been happening recently here or nearby.

As most kids they hadn’t really heard anything, they were too busy being kids. He made sure to walk them home of course and introduce himself to their parents to let them know what was going on and to see if they’d heard anything. Freddie’s mom hadn’t and had been suspicious of Clint at first, but Clint knew how to be relatable and reassuring. So Freddie was home and then he went to John’s house, whose parents had heard something, they glanced at each other after he asked.

“John, baby, go get your baby sister and have some dinner,” his mother said and he huffed but did as she said, both parents stepped outside.

“Something serious happening?” Clint asked, looking between them.

“We don’t really know,” the father started, “We heard some...nasty things comin’ outta Patterson, ‘bout kids goin’ missing, then showin’ up again...actin’...wrong.”

“Wrong?” Clint asked, getting a sinking feeling in his gut, “How?”

“Well, they was saying they’d been...messed with, like in the head...ya know?” the father said then shrugged, “Nothing really came of it, just that the kids were found a few days later after they went missing.”

Clint let out a breath, “Right, and they didn’t have anything to say about where they were?”

“Not that I heard,” the father said, “You think Davie got caught up in this?”

“I’m not sure yet,” he sighed, “But I’m going to do my best to find him. If you can remember anything else, I’ll be around town.”

“We will,” they promised then headed back inside.

Clint frowned and looked to the sky for a moment, wondering why there had to be so many assholes in the world. But dammit he was going to find this kid.

 

His first stop the next morning was the local library, he was hoping to find some kind of map or history of the area, so he could see if there was somewhere that was near where Davie had gone missing but wasn’t obvious for the townspeople as to be where he was. It was a good plan, but actually finding results was absolutely a pain. He’d been in there for nearly eight hours and was going to be kicked out soon and he still had nothing to show for it, it was incredibly frustrating, until he came across a photo book that showed photos of settlers from way back in the day and a portion comparing ‘then and now’ and in one of them was a mill with a farmhouse, the then was new and crisp with a creek nearby, and the now was old and dilapidated with the same creek, only a bit further away, and Clint was pretty damn sure he knew where that creek was. It was near the boys’ hideout.

He slammed the book closed and then flinched when he got an ‘ahem!’ from the librarian. He mouthed an apology, put the book on the return cart and then made a dash away from the library, halfway to heading to the mill when he realized he hadn’t eaten all day and he would probably need a little rest too.

So he let himself pause take a deep breath and do just that, he went to the diner, ate a good meal and then headed back to his motel where he would prepare, he didn’t have his bow as that was way too recognizable, but he did have a gun, which was a little harder to come by in this decade but he’d managed to get his hands on a Browning pistol, one he knew he could trust and knew he could fire accurately, he’d also got himself a carry permit, just in case, he really didn’t need to end up in jail in this time.

So after all was settled and he got a good amount of sleep, he headed out early in the morning, before the sun had really risen, and made his way along the path the other boys had led him down, he checked the hideout, just in case, but there was nothing new, no sign of new movement within, then carried on, going further down to the creek and then using the memory of the pictures in his head to make an educated guess and head northeast along it to hopefully come across the mill and farmhouse.

It was a bit of a walk, at least twenty minutes before he came across it, it still looked dilapidated and in ruin, and Clint hoped he was right and wasn’t just making a wild guess, because it didn’t look like anyone had been inside, but still he carried on, his hand ready to grab his pistol at a moment’s notice.  
He creeped around the side, checking angles from the windows and doors, if he was seen and whoever it was ran, it would suck, but hopefully Davie would still be okay, he made it easily, using the shadows to his advantage.

He peeked in every window he saw, starting with the farmhouse, so far all he’d seen was empty rooms with smashed furniture and beer bottles, which clearly meant this was where the teenagers came to party, so far nothing else was in there, he moved away and headed to the mill, it didn’t have any windows, but it did have a door that was hanging on it’s hinges making a gap big enough for him to peek in, he took a silent breath and then did so but was disappointed, there was nothing just an empty mill with nothing but sawdust and- wait.

He blinked and saw it again, a tiny speck of light shining from the floor.

He moved in, around the door carefully so it didn’t squeak and alert the kidnapper to his presence, and then made his way carefully across the floor, he stopped by the light and realized it was a trapdoor, of course.

He took another breath and took out his gun, then very carefully pulled it up, grateful to the kidnapper for oiling it as it didn’t make a peep. It opened to reveal some wooden steps that led down into what Clint guessed was a bomb shelter, they were still involved in the Cold War after all, so he wasn’t too terribly surprised.

He took each step with care, just in case they were boobytrapped, but made it down without anything trying to kill him, which made his day already pretty damn good.

The area that it led into was a tunnel with shelves on both sides holding an assortment of very old canned food, dusty and gross and definitely past its’ expiration date.

He continued to creep along, being as quiet as he knew how to thanks to Natasha’s tutelage and his own experience, he barely made a sound at all as he stepped over to the door, it was closed, but he could hear some movement on the other side, and some shuffling.

Someone was in there, he just didn’t know how to get in there without being detected or what the range of the room might be, though guessing from the date, he figured it would be small, typical bunker style so he would just have to open the door and point the gun. Luckily he was absolutely perfect when it came to sighting a room in thirty seconds or less, it was one of his more enviable skills.

He took a quick breath and then kicked the door open, and raised his gun with both hands, “Hands where I can see them!”

There was a loud crash and a man -one fitting the description given by the arcade owner- spun around, dropping whatever had been in his hands in shock, he scrambled for something but Clint wasn’t going to let him do anything.

“FREEZE OR I SHOOT.”

Luckily he did freeze, but he did not look pleased by it.

“Hands up where I can see them,” Clint instructed, pleased he did as told, “Where’s the boy?”

He heard a soft shuffle and a muffled voice and glanced to see the kid tied up and gagged in the corner.

Clint’s eyes went back to the man and finally took in everything behind him, there were spreadsheets with information all over them and vials and needles and a whole bunch of stuff that was pretty scary and he was no scientist, but he knew for damn sure injecting foreign substances into people was a bad idea.

“Having a bit too much fun with the kids there, Jareth?” he asked, “Lay on your stomach, hands on your head.”

The man complied, silently and glaring death at Clint until his face was on the dirty floor, Clint grabbed the handcuffs he’d brought with him. He was open to being like a real detective and was totally all for embracing a role, especially when he’d loved stories about old school detectives as a kid so he’d come prepared. Too bad he didn’t have the hat.

He managed to get the man handcuffed and then went over to the kid, trying to look as non imposing as he could.

“Hey, Dave, right?” he asked calmly, “My name’s Cliff, your mom sent me to find you, I’m going to untie you, okay?”

The kid nodded and Clint went about taking the gag off and untying his hands.

“He has needles and he said he was gonna make me into the perfect mutant!” Dave cried, sounding beyond terrified.

“Did he inject you with anything?” Clint asked sharply because if he had they were in big trouble, but Dave shook his head and Clint was flooded with relief, “Okay, you’re alright, let’s get you out of here and get this dirtbag in a jail cell.”

“You don’t know what you’re doing!” the man finally cried, “You’re going to ruin everything! I have the solution! Without me they will all fail!”

“Yeah yeah, Dr. Frankenstein, shut up,” Clint said yanking him up roughly, “Walk.”

“You don’t understand! Without my findings it will all be ruined!” he shrieked, trying to get back, but Clint was too strong for him.

“Don’t worry, we’ll turn it over to the police and they can ruin it instead,” Clint drawled, “Now walk, we’ve got a little bit of a trek to get back to town, you know any good stories, Dave?”

“U-uh...no?” he said, clearly a nervous wreck, but Clint didn’t want him to go into shock.

“Oh sure you do, you gotta have some stories, with John and Freddie? You guys don’t do anything crazy?”

“You know John and Freddie?” he asked.

“Sure do, they were real worried about you, went looking for you, now come on, tell me a story,” he offered the kid a smile and was glad to see him relax a little and start stuttering through a typical tale of mischief. Clint was sure to keep a tight grip on the kidnapper all the way back into town.

It took a bit but they made it to the station and Clint handed the man over who was back to screeching about his research, Clint told the police about the other stuff and then made sure Dave and his mom were reunited before refusing any payment and then left town with a wave, trying to go for the mysterious helpful stranger bid.

He was sure he pulled it off, but there was just something about the whole incident that was niggling something in the back of his mind. He couldn’t pin it down, but, oh well, he’d come, seen a problem and solved it.

It was time to move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Chapter: July 15th.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And finally, we have an encounter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with me so far!  
> If you're also reading Stark Empire, I am so sorry, some stuff ended up not being how I wanted so I am rewriting the next chapter.
> 
> I hope this makes up for it!

He’d been on his way back to the Mansion when he’d stopped by NYC, just to check it out, see what was different, including the skyline. Not having Avengers Tower there was a bit odd, as was having the Twin Towers right there, impressive and gleaming in the sun. Other things were different too, sounds and smells, the atmosphere, the feelings in the air. It was some serious Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles movie shit. It was kind of awesome. Cowabunga, dude.

He was moseying down Broadway wondering if one of the local shops he liked was there yet, when he came across the most enticing smell, he followed it to find a pizza shop serving fresh hot east coast style pizza. He had to have some, because clearly it had been calling to him, actually it did sort of feel like something was wanting him to be there, and it wasn’t his stomach.

He found a place to lean against and eat his pizza but also people watch. It was something he enjoyed doing anyway, but it was interesting to do it in a city he knew well, but only three decades in the past. It was different. What seemed the same was the people, they had places to be and things to do, people to meet, it was nice in a way. He saw a few businessmen with pagers and couldn’t help but chuckle a little to himself. 

He watched as people came in and out of the bank across the street until he spotted a few that were acting...odd.

Twitchy, glancing around, paranoid as they headed into the bank.

Clint sighed, robbers, of course. It didn’t look like they were carrying, but they were all wearing heavy jackets, so he might be wrong, and from what he could see there were three of them. He supposed he could take care of it.

He finished up his food, wiped his hands on his napkin and threw it away then made his way across the street, not realizing he was being followed.

He entered the bank and grabbed a flier from one of the racks that were just inside the lobby, but was watching the three people he’d pegged instead, they were spread out, but not watching the door. Yikes. Amateurs. Both easy to deal with, but also dangerous.

They were all in line for a teller, which was dumb. Definitely newbs.

He contemplated the best way to take them out when he felt someone move right next to him, he glanced at the person there, trying not to be obvious about it and then did a double take.

“Um…uh...” he said, blinking up at his soulmate, totally thrown off.

“Charming,” Magneto said dryly, “What are you doing?”

“Um… about to stop a bank heist...what are  _ you _ doing?” he replied, because he couldn’t think of any reason why the man would be here.

“How exactly are you planning on doing that?” he asked, clearly ignoring the other question.

“By knocking them all out with something heavy, what are you doing here?” he replied, staring at him wide eyed.

The other man let out a breath, “I happened to be in the area,” he replied and Clint frowned, then narrowed his eyes.

“Are you here because I’m here, or am I here cause you’re here?” he asked and saw the other man’s confusion, “I had a feeling I was supposed to be here, I thought it might have been intuition because-” he gestured at the idiots now at the front now holding up the tellers, “But now, I’m not so sure.”

“Hmm,” Magneto said, glancing at the robbers without emotion, “Hard to say, I was here looking into reports of mutants going missing.”

“I haven’t heard anything about that,” Clint said with a frown.

“I’m not surprised, it’s not likely you would,” he replied.

Clint frowned more, “Why do I feel insulted suddenly?”

“I meant in the sense that your connections are unlikely to know,” he replied smoothly.

“I don’t have connections, I just talk to people.”

“Mutants?” he said, and Clint knew a test when he heard one, and had to try very hard not to roll his eyes.

“I said people didn’t I?” he replied dryly, then glanced at the robbers now making a break for it, “Excuse me a moment would you?”

He stepped out just as the first one passed, sticking out his leg and tripping him then with a quick knife hand strike had the second down, and a duck and an elbow to the side the other stumbled back and Clint was able to knock him down with a kick.

“Somebody wanna call the cops?” he called out, “Also any volunteers to sit on them until they get here?”

He got a lot of blank and shocked stares in reply.

He rolled his eyes, bystanders, honestly, “You, you and you,” he pointed at three of them, “Pop a squat on them,” he directed them all to find a guy to sit on and hold their hands, but he figured the police would be here soon.

“You should probably go,” he said to Magneto who seemed to look vaguely amused, but Clint wasn’t too sure.

“Yes, probably for the best,” he agreed, turning and walking out of the bank and away without another word. Clint waited for the police and helped out as they took the robbers into custody.

He made sure to get it cleared up and avoid anything about reporting it to the news, he was only stalled for about twenty minutes before he was able to get away.

He let out a sigh and shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked down the street, wondering where Magneto had run off to and why he was here, at least where Clint had been. Being in New York City wasn’t all that surprising. It had a large population so just by default it had a lot of mutants, so naturally he’d spend a lot of time here. But how he’d suddenly stumbled across Clint who’d only popped in for the day before he planned to return to Westchester was what made him curious.

He was too busy thinking about what that could possibly mean when someone shoved at him from behind and threw him into a nearby alley, Clint was able to keep his feet but it wasn’t enough to stop the guy from pointing a gun at his face.

“Fuckin’ asshole, those were my guys you handed over to the police,” he growled, Clint blinked.

“Well...I recommend training your guys better because they were shit,” he said honestly, “Seriously who has them all go to a teller and not have a look out?”

“Why you little-” he cocked the gun and before Clint could even think, he fired, and it was at point blank range and oh god was this seriously how he was going to die? In the past because he was mouthing off?

But...but nothing happened.

He opened the eyes he hadn’t realized he’d closed and yelped. The bullet was right in front of him frozen in the air about two inches from his face. It dropped to the ground, and Clint blinked again at the man with the gun who was holding his bloodied face.

“Jesus shit,” Clint breathed, looking at the gun hovering but moving towards an outstretched hand, he took a deep breath when he saw a very unimpressed Magneto standing there, dismantling the gun and then warping it into scrap metal before letting it clatter to the ground.

“Is that how you usually deal with life and death situations?” he asked, clearly thinking Clint was an idiot. 

“N-no! I mean y- no! Jesus, I wasn’t prepared, I have my moments!” he spluttered as his heart raced from the sudden burst of adrenaline.

“It’s a wonder you’re still alive,” he said sounding disgusted and then turned and walked away leaving the culprit on the ground still bleeding.

“Aaaaahg?!” Clint flailed a bit, “Fucker!” he said finally, and then tied the idiot up with a few trashbags, not elegant but it would do so he couldn’t run away; found a pay phone and called in an anonymous tip. By then he had no idea where the metalbending mutant had run off to.

It put Clint in a pretty sour mood, but he still headed back to the Mansion for lack of anywhere else to go, he hoped Erik would not be there because Clint was kind of tempted to punch him in the face. He didn’t have to be such a jackass, just because Clint hadn’t seen a dude with a gun coming after him didn’t make him incompetent. 

But jesus...what a way to make an impression. A second impression, probably worse than the first.

Why was this his life? And more importantly why did he even care? 

He shouldn’t care all considering, but if he was actually honest with himself, he probably cared a little too much. 

Dammit.

 

He managed to get back to the mansion in one piece and then immediately wanted to leave again, he was a little too riled up to be around a bunch of insecure kids with wild and dangerous powers, he was about to just turn around and hop back on the bike he’d borrowed and just go off to somewhere else but was stopped when he spotted a familiar blue mutant leaning against the door to the garage.

“Took your time, it’s been over a week,” Raven said, arching an eyebrow at him, “I was about to get worried.”

“Oh please,” Clint rolled his eyes, “As if Charles couldn’t just find me with his freaky mind powers if you were really worried.”

Her other eyebrow jerked up,  “Someone is grumpy.”

Clint let out a soft huff of breath, “Sorry, I’m just…” he rubbed at his face tiredly, “I did some good and shit and then…”

“And then?” 

“I ran into Magnet Man in New York and he just kinda...was a jerk, put me in a bad mood.” 

“How was he a jerk?”

“How is he not a jerk?” he grumbled back as he slouched his way into the mansion, noting that the building seemed completely back to how it should be, but he was too grumpy to really appreciate it. He headed to his room to drop off his stuff, with the intention of hitting up the kitchen next. Raven was following him all the while, probably with that same look on her face, judging him.

“I’m still wondering what he did to get you in this mood, and for you to hang onto it for the whole drive here from Manhattan.”

Clint got to the kitchen, glad to see none of the kids in there and grab some food, he was able to make a sandwich with chips and a soda and sit down before he looked at Raven again, he huffed out a sigh and slumped more.

“I was just...it’s more me...than it is him…” he grumbled, “I saw a robbery about to go down so I went in to stop it, then when all was said and done, I just walked away and didn’t realize the lookout saw me, and then you know...I was held at gunpoint and kinda mouthing off and yeah...if he’d not been there I’d be dead in an alley right now,” he rubbed his face, “But of course that shit would only happen to me, when I’m not prepared...you know I’ve been held at gunpoint before? I’ve managed to get out of much worse situations than that, and naturally, he gets to see me at my stupidest.”

“Aaaah,” Raven said sitting across from him, and Clint was again reminded of how very alike Natasha she was, but how different she was too. It made him miss Nat, but also feel very grateful for Raven, “You’re upset he saw you not at your best, you mean.”

“...yeah? I guess?” he said and then groaned and slouched over the counter, letting his head thunk against the granite, “I’m just...jesus I have been tortured and stabbed and a whole bunch of other shit by very competent criminals and helped save the world a couple times without anyone knowing okay? And like-” he lifted his head and let it thunk again.

“Stop that, you’ll turn your brain to jelly,” Raven said dryly, “And probably crack the counter, we just fixed it.” 

“You think you’re so funny,” he grumbled at her but did lift his head, “I am not usually that helpless.”

“I would think not if you’re what...a spy in the future? If that’s what gets you into so much trouble,” she said and he shrugged.

“More or less,” he replied, “And he gets to see me like that and basically confirm I’m a waste of space.”

“I doubt he thinks you’re a waste of space,” Raven said on the verge of exasperation, “Your lack of self-esteem really is something else, you know that?”

“Yeah, so my therapist tells me,” he replied, “But still, you can’t tell me he doesn’t think I’m not incompetent.”

“Well, I can’t promise that, but he probably did watch you stop a robbery beforehand?”

“Yeah, but that makes it worse! I should have been on my guard but I was...I was thinking about him, does that mean I can blame him?”

Raven barked out a laugh, “I don’t think so, no.”

“Damn,”  he went back to his sandwich for a few bites, then looked at her, “What do you think?”

She looked at him curiously, “I think you’re both idiots, honestly, but I don’t think I’m really one to judge, I’ll never have to deal with those kinds of feelings and thoughts.”

“Not true,” Clint said, “Even if you don’t have words doesn’t mean you might not find someone who is perfect for you, a blank slate is...a chance for endless possibilities, but it also gives you an outside perspective, which makes you the perfect person to ask.”

She looked at him, perhaps even more curious, “If you say so,” she said and he shrugged again.

“I’m just saying, you can see things with a clear mind, so...you can really know, I’m clouded by...well, a lot and I’m not going to get into it, I just...do you think it’s worth me...trying?”

She didn’t answer immediately, she actually thought about it, about him, and about Erik, and about them together, and while she hadn’t actually seen them interact, she knew Erik, and she was getting to know Clint.

“I do,” she replied after a moment, “It’s not going to be easy in the slightest, but...you two...have the potential to be something good, I think.”

“Huh...kay,” he said softly and then went back to his food.

“So...what kind of things did you do as a spy?” she asked and he laughed.

“You’re probably a better spy than me,” he replied, “I’m kinda shit at it, honestly, but I can get the job done usually, I got caught more than I’d like to admit, it’s not my forte, but I can do it if I need to. I mostly did other things, like recon, and recovery and stuff,” he shrugged, “Able to call things like when a drug dealer made a sale, or human trafficking and shit, caught a lot of bad guys doing bad shit, and was able to make the world a little better one scumbag at a time, probably a good thing I don’t end up in prison though…” 

“Noted,” she said, “I’ll be sure to break you out if I need to.”

“Awwww, you do love me~!” he put his hands over his heart and laughed when she threw a napkin at him.

“I mean, it’ll be better and less destructive if I do, rather than Erik, he’d accidentally break everyone out and that wouldn’t be helpful.”

“Ha, good point,” he laughed, “Though I figure he’d leave me in there for a bit just to teach me a lesson.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Dunno, he just seems the type,” he replied and finished off his food and drink then yawned a bit, “Well...anyway, I think I’m gonna go take a nap, I’ve been busy.”

“Alright Sleeping Beauty, rest well, the others are ready to start training with you again, you’ll need your rest.”

“Ha...so will they,” he grinned winking at her, making her laugh again, then he put his dishes in the sink and then headed back to his room, feeling a little better, and passed out the moment his head hit the pillow.

 

The next day he was training with the baby X-Men again, this time in a simulation and playing a game very similar to capture the flag, they had to grab a colored scarf that was attached to a belt around his waist, the Danger Room was designed kind of like a warehouse with platforms and raised areas that looked like boxes and crates, and ramps and hanging platforms above, it was like a playground for Clint who was now using his arrows and proving to them just how much of a menace he could be if he tried. 

Each of the kids had to grab one scarf, a red one for Jean, a white one for Ororo, a yellow one for Scott, a green one for Kurt, and a purple one for Peter who was finally healed. While at first appearance it seemed like an easy task, the name of the game was capture the flag, without powers, which was making it extremely difficult for all of them.

Clint was probably having way too much fun making them chase him around, especially as he was a huge troll, he’d let one of them get really close, and then just jump off the platform, or push them off if he was feeling particularly villainous, they could use their powers to rescue themselves, of course.

“Come oooon, you guys aren’t trying hard enough, I’m just a boring old human and I’m running circles around you~!” he said gleefully swinging from a grappling hook down onto the floor.

“If we could use our powers we’d already be done!” Scott growled trying to grab his scarf as Clint swung past, but missed by a lot.

“That’s not the point. The point is to learn how to do things without them, you never know when you’ll be without, or if you’ll be incapacitated, or in a position where using them could cause harm,” Clint said waving an arrow at him, “Why do you think I have so many arrows? I can’t use a normal one for everything, I had to find ways to use something I know and change it for different purposes, you guys need to do that too, and then you’ll be total badasses.”

“How can we do a thing like change the purpose of our powers?” Ororo asked, just as frustrated, she was quick, so far she had come the closest, seeing as she had some pretty keen pickpocketing skills, but Clint had still managed to twist away and fall off the platform to get away.

“I dunno, that part’s up to you, I can’t handfeed you everything, I only know so much,” he said, and then turned and grinned at Jean who’d been trying to creep up on him from behind, “Hey there,” he said and then threw a smoke arrow tip on the ground, making her squeak in surprise, and allowing Clint to vanish.

Once the smoke cleared, he was gone, they didn’t see him anywhere. 

“Does that mean we win by default?” Peter asked, hands on his hips, frustrated, trying not to run was absolutely impossible for him, Clint had puttied his feet to the ground twice already because of it.

“I do not think he is really gone,” Kurt said stepping up next to his soulmate. Kurt had come close as well, while he couldn’t use his teleportation he was still very agile, but Clint knew as many circus tricks as he did, which made him hard to get an advantage on.

“Maybe he went back to the future finally and we’re free of him,” Scott said standing across from them, sounding a little too hopeful. The ladies stood a little ways from them but were also looking around, a little more vigilant than the boys.

“Nope,” Clint said dropping down from where he’d been on the ceiling. Why no one ever thought to look up, he had no idea, but he wasn’t going to argue, he’d used it dozens of times and would keep using the trick until it stopped working. Probably.

He crouched down and easily swept Scott off his feet making him land on his ass, Peter managed to avoid it by tripping backwards in surprise, but he did stay on his feet, and Kurt teleported a few feet away on instinct.

Clint was cackling, probably a little too into the villain role, but he was having fun, couldn’t really blame him, but he wasn’t really paying attention, and Ororo took that opportunity to slip in the second he stood back up and snag her scarf from his waist, he felt it and swung his bow around to stop Jean from doing the same, but she came very very close.

“Ha! Nice, well, it looks like we have a winner!” Clint said, “Very nice, Ororo, you get a gold star.”

“What kind of gold star?” she asked, and Clint snorted a laugh.

“Right that must not be a thing in Egypt,” he said, “A sticker, when someone does good in school they get a gold star sticker.”

“Oh I see,” she said, shaking her head slowly still obviously confused, “I can not use a sticker for anything.”

Clint chuckled softly, “Nevermind, how about I make pancakes instead? I’m kinda starving, anyone else?”

“I can go for food,” Peter said.

“You can always go for food,” Clint pointed out.

“True,” Peter shrugged and then turned to smile at Kurt who was looking a bit surprised, but smiled back at his soulmate when he saw him. Clint snickered, so cute.

“So Ororo, what kind of pancakes would you like?” Clint asked as they all started to make a move towards the doors, throwing his arm over her shoulder.

“I have yet to try ah, blueberry, I think it is?” she said, “I did not often get blueberries in Egypt, but when I did I loved them.”

“Well shooooot, blueberry pancakes it is,” he said, “Kurt what about you? You came second closest to getting your flag, what kind do you want?”

“I do not think you know how to make the kind I like,” he said, “In Germany they are a bit different, my mother made zem every Sunday before Mass.”

“Hmm, well, if you know how to make them, you can walk me through it, I’m sure I can figure it out.”

“Hey, what about the rest of us?” Scott asked.

“Psh, you can starve,” Clint said and rolled his eyes, “I’ll make enough for everyone, goodness, what, do you think I’m a monster?”

“Do you want me to answer that honestly?” Scott muttered.

“Someone’s a sore loser,” Clint replied then sighed, “Why don’t the rest of you guys go on ahead, yeah? Find the ingredients for the food?”

The others nodded, getting the point easy enough, the last one to leave was Jean who gave them a look before leaving.

Clint stood in front of Scott, “Okay man, what’s up?”

“Nothing,” he snapped and Clint arched an unimpressed eyebrow, “Look, I don’t want to talk about it, I just want food.”

“You may not want to talk, but you probably should, you’ve been kind of assholey lately, so there’s something going on, I’m no psychologist but I’ve had enough experience in my life to know ignoring it doesn’t help anyone, so come on, what’s up?”

Scott was probably glaring at him through his visor if the set of his eyebrows as any indication, but Clint wasn’t deterred, he’d stared down the Hulk before, staring down a teenager was easy, even if said teenager could blast him into oblivion with a blink. 

“I’m not moving until you share, or...promise to share with Charles,” he added because well, he should talk to someone he felt comfortable sharing with.

“He wouldn’t understand, just cause he reads minds doesn’t mean he gets it,” Scott grumbled, looking away.

“Then what’s up man? I hate to say it, but I think it’s affecting your performance, being angry all the time is not conducive to a fruitful life,” he paused, “My therapist used to really like that line,” he said, amused. 

Scott frowned again, looking frustrated and then deflated a little, his head still turned to the side, “My brother…” he started and trailed off, but that was really all Clint needed as a few things slotted into place. Clint knew Havoc, or Alex Summers, had died in the Mansions explosion, and well, that was a pretty shitty circumstance for Scott who hadn’t really gotten the chance to mourn properly, as he’d been thrust straight into fight after fight.

“Aaaaah, okay...yeah,” he nodded, he softened his stance, “You’re upset that he’s not here?” he guessed gently, and watched as Scott jerkily nodded.

“He was-” he saw the kids jaw grit, and knew that feel, oh boy did he. He reached out slowly and rested his hand on Scott’s shoulder.

“Big brothers are hard to lose,” Clint said softly, “Especially when you look up to them your whole life, not being able to turn to them when you need them, or expecting them to be there and finding them gone...it sucks,” he said and Scott looked up at him, “I lost mine too...not the same way you did, mine was just a giant asshole, but he walked out of my life and...after having him there for the first 16 years of my life...it was really hard to not have him there.”

“Having your brother be a giant asshole is not the same, mine is  _ dead _ ,” Scott snapped.

“Oh mine is too, now,” Clint said, “But I’d lost him before that, I never got the chance to really make up with him before that, so now it’s a big ‘what if’ hanging over my head, I’ll never have an answer, but I’d like to believe we could have made up,” he smiled sadly, “I know your brother cared about you, he’d want you to do well, and that involves getting to a point where you accept that doing things for him will eventually lead to you doing things for yourself.”

“What do you mean?” 

“It’s a bit like a mantra, ‘What would he want me to do?’, any time you’re unsure, any time that you feel you’d have turned to him for guidance ask yourself that and then eventually you can change it to ‘what can I do?’ to make him proud? Sure, or just to be the best you you can be,” he shrugged, “...grief and recovery are different for everyone, you don’t have to take my advice...but I definitely recommend talking to someone about it...okay? Remember you’re not the only one to have lost him...Mystique, Charles and Hank knew him too...talk to them, I think it will help.”

Scott didn’t reply and Clint didn’t expect him to, he’d given him a lot to think about.

Clint threw an arm around his shoulder, “Now come on, let’s go get some food, I’m starving,” 

Scott nodded and allowed Clint to lead him away.

Clint counted it as a good thing as the Danger Room powered down.

They headed out to rejoin the others and Clint was able to impress them with his pancake flipping technique, until Jean used her powers to show off, either way it was a lot of fun. Clint thought it was a good way to end a training session. He hoped they would keep going as well as this one did.

 

Clint found he actually did enjoy teaching them new things, talking to Jean about archery was a lot of fun and just talking to her about things, she was a smart kid, she had a lot of life experience for a teenager, which was kind of sad in a way, but he hoped he was able to help some days. To help her feel more like a kid and to just relax, or to talk about whatever crossed her mind. A way to connect.

He had a lot of conversations like this with all of the others, getting to know them, finding out their favorites and fears and just anything they felt like talking about, it was kind of nice to connect with people again, he also realized none of the other Avengers were quite this open with him or each other, and had to put it down to the fact that they were still young and hadn’t had the chance to get the hard shell to protect themselves most adults had. He kind of envied that, and then it really made him wonder what they’d done to forget it later in life because they were very good at hiding their knowledge and familiarity with him in the future, because being professional was one thing but honestly, he knew a lot about them now, it was a good thing he wasn’t planning on becoming a villain because he’d really be able to kick their asses.

It also made him wonder, how the shit was he supposed to get to know his soulmate if the man saw him one time, judged him for that one time and then bailed?

He was pretty sure they were never going to be a thing at this rate. And he still wasn’t sure if he wanted to. Honestly was a relationship, even a friendly one worth it if all he did was freak out about it? He didn’t think so. And honestly, what was to say Magneto wouldn’t just...find it too much work to begin with? Clint was pretty sure that was the case already.

Uhg it was that kind of bullshit that kept him up at night from anxiety and just his mind not knowing when to shut the hell up.

It was one of those nights and he couldn’t stay in his room, he felt too cramped and wandered down to the kitchen, wishing Charles had a place for alcohol, but decided to deal and just crack open some rootbeer instead.

He slid up onto the counter and let out a soft huff as he took a sip of the bubbly beverage, hoping it would distract him a little. The mansion was quiet, which was a stark contrast to the daytime when it was bustling with kids running around and things flying past heads and just the madness of a normal school day, something Clint had never gotten to experience himself now that he thought about it. It was kind of fun.

He heard a scuff behind him and dropped from the counter in an instant, spinning around to see what had come in behind him from the kitchen door that should have been locked, he was in a defensive position before he could even think about it.

“What are you doing here?” Magneto asked, looking genuinely surprised as he stepped in through the back door.

Clint just arched his eyebrows at him, dropping his hands, but still tense, “Could ask you the same thing. I go wander around from time to time, but I can’t do that forever, especially if I have to wait for you. Though you know you just like left me here right? Where _ else _ would I be?”

Magneto’s face was straight as he didn’t reply, Clint sighed and shook his head, sliding his rootbeer bottle off the counter and into the recyclable bin below.

“Whatever, I’m going back to bed.”

He made it to the door before Magento spoke.

“You were waiting for me?” He sounded like he doubted his own words.

Clint took a moment to think before he turned around, had he really been waiting for him, or had he thrown that out to make him feel bad? Well, okay a little bit of both. But yes, he had been waiting, but he’d gotten bored and just gone out to do stuff.

He turned around and raised incredulous brows at him, “What the shit else am I supposed to do? I am here for  _ you _ , you remember that right? The whole, literally falling into you bit? Yeah, from the future? Can’t exactly get back now, can I? So yeah, I’m waiting for you, but you were taking your sweet damn time and I got bored so I went out to see if I could help people. So sue me.” He snorted, “Not like I can work for my previous employers, seeing as I’m three fucking years old, ha, three year old assassin.” He shook his head because he was distracting himself, “But yeah.”

“I was occupied-”

“I know, you had some serious shit to work out, I get that, that’s why I’ve been here, but like...are you seriously that surprised that your soulmate is where you left him?”

“After having to save your life in New York? Yes.”

“Oh fuck you, that was a fluke,” he grumbled, “I would have been fine, you distracted me! If you hadn’t been there at all I would have been paying attention!”

“So it’s my fault you almost got shot?” he sounded disbelieving.

“Yes,” Clint replied, crossing his arms, “You showed up out of the blue, you were a distraction!” 

“You can not blame me for your lack of discipline-”

“What?!” he didn’t exactly screech but it was a near thing, “Lack of- Look here you overgrown magnet, you get absolutely no say-”

“What is going on?” another voice demanded, a rumpled and grumpy looking Raven was behind Clint, “Honestly, you know this house has an echo, right? I’m surprised you haven’t woken up the whole school. Why are you yell- aaaah.” 

Raven’s yellow eyes peeked over Clint’s shoulder to see Erik, her lips turned up into a sort of smirk, “Erik.”

“Raven,” he replied, voice clipped.

“Uhg,” Clint grunted and didn’t bother to say anything more as he moved around Raven and marched out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

“I see things are going well,” she said to the other mutant.

“He is clearly the result of Fate laughing at me,” Erik replied, shaking his head, “I have no idea what the point is.”

“Oh, I don’t know…maybe to help you recover? To give you someone new? To bond with another person? To slap some sense into you?” Raven replied rolling her eyes, “Don’t know if you’ve realized but you’re not exactly the easiest person to get along with- and yet, you still find people who love you, should tell you something.”

“You want me to give him a chance?” he was incredulous, but how could he not be, he didn’t want to even think about the rest of what Raven said.

“Well it’s not like he’s here for any other reason, leaving him to just hang is kind of rude,” she shrugged, then she sighed, shaking her head, “He knows you’re not going to like him, he makes it clear every single time you’re brought up, he thinks you’re not going to work out.”

“Then perhaps there’s nothing to work out,” he replied and Raven threw her hands up.

“I am too tired for this conversation,” she huffed and then gestured down the hall, “There’s a free room down there, you can talk to Charles in the morning.”

And with that, she turned around and headed back up the stairs to return to bed herself.

Magneto would have left, he should have left, but, he looked up the stairs, where Raven had just gone and where his soulmate had gone.

He closed his eyes and let out a breath. He should have, but...he was weak, he knew he wouldn’t, he’d tried to avoid the mansion because he thought Clint was here, but then he’d seen the man in New York and thought he could come to talk to Charles, but apparently, he’d assumed wrong.

He’d run into his soulmate instead.

God, Fate was such a bitch sometimes.

He took in another breath and exhaled, then quietly moved down the hall to the room Raven had indicated. He clearly couldn’t just avoid him. Despite how very hard it was to think that there was someone out there, specifically for him, but he knew how wrong it could all go, after his darling Magda and Nina, he’d loved them with all of his heart and...and he’d lost them. It always seemed to happen, it was like Fate was trying to break him, he feared she had almost won, but perhaps it had all been tests, leading up to this. He hated to think that was right too, it almost seemed worse. 

He shook his head as he closed the door to the room he’d stayed in before, it looked like it hadn’t changed. 

Well...he couldn’t leave now or it would look like he was running away, and Raven would give him hell for years to come if he did that.

Dammit.

He supposed he would be here for a while.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning was a cacophony of sound at first bell, Erik woke with a jerk, realizing he’d slept later than he’d meant to. He’d wanted to wake up before classes started but clearly that wasn’t the case. He’d been more tired than he thought if he hadn’t woken up sooner, and he hated to think that it was easier for him to sleep here because he was comfortable- he dismissed the thought before he could ponder more on it. At this point, if the bell had rung the children had already had breakfast and they were rushing around the halls to reach their first period on time.

Erik let out a breath and inhaled once more to recenter himself, he still wasn’t doing too well, he knew that, but existing was all he  _ could _ do. 

He rolled out of bed, righted himself as best as he could and decided to see how things were going around the school before he found Charles.

He waited until the halls were quiet again before he opened the door and stepped out. He looked around noting all of the new things that had been added since he left, it seemed like they’d added more metal plating, which he approved of and hoped it would help against anything bad happening like what had happened before. Despite all that had happened Erik was still very fond of the mansion, he’d gotten to know Raven and Charles here, made connections, something he’d not done in a very long time. And even after everything that had happened between them, he was still fond of those memories. He had so much worse locked in his mind that the simple happy ones were worth being cherished.

He heard a voice coming through a cracked door and peeked in to see Jean and Scott taking charge of some of the younger mutants and teaching them about how hard it was to grow up being a mutant, giving advice when asked and examples of their own problems.

He left them to it and saw another door wide open, this one had someone he didn’t recognize teaching what looking like history, there were many more rooms with other lessons happening. He knew Charles was down the way likely teaching philosophy or sociology, Erik would speak to him when he was free, he kept going until he saw a range set up outside the south side through the large windows with many of the students lined up with bows in their hands.

He also saw, with a bit of shock, his soulmate standing to the side of them, giving instruction. He moved closer so he could hear out of the open window.

“...aim, you want to know where your arrow lands before it does. I know what you’re thinking, ‘how can I do that without aiming?’ Well, you have to know exactly where you want it to land, this takes incredible concentration and focus, and complete faith in your own abilities, that’s something each of you can do with your own powers. Caitlyn, how do you make your lights happen?”

“I dunno...they just do?” the girl offered, shrugging.

“Oh, come on, they don’t  _ just _ happen, otherwise you’d have no control and you have enough control to light up the whole danger room. You learned how to control them and they come when you need them, you don’t think about it anymore, because it’s second nature. When you get comfortable doing something and know you can do something it gives you confidence,” he said, his lips were turned up, “I think every single one of you can learn to hit the bullseye and know you can hit it, but you have to figure out how on your own because the people who know how you learn best are yourselves.”

“Who taught you how to hit a bullseye?” someone else asked, as if trying to prove a point, Barton smirked.

“A man named Trick Shot; I saw him shoot once and wanted to try it for myself when he was away, but he caught me, he seemed to appreciate my desire to learn though, so he offered to teach me, and when I picked up the bow at our first lesson he told me that I wasn’t allowed to have dinner until I hit a bullseye.” 

“What?” several of them gasped. 

“Did you?” the other one asked.

He shrugged, “Eventually, yeah, took me all night, but I did.”

“He waited all night for you to hit it?”

Barton laughed, “No, I was alone for the most part.”

“...why didn’t you just  _ say _ you did it then?” another asked in true teenager fashion.

“A couple reasons: I was nine, I didn’t think about it; lying to adults had never done me any favors before and because I wanted to. I wanted to be able to hit the bullseye, I was willing to put forth the effort because I wanted to be able to have that skill. Now...I’m gonna ask...if a nine year old can hit a bullseye out of sheer stubbornness, why can’t a whole bunch of superpowered teenagers?” 

That seemed to set a fire under their asses as a moment later they all picked up their bows and started firing.

Barton smirked, pleased. He watched them for a few moments then turned, as if sensing he was being watched, his eyes went to the house, he found the eyes on him immediately and his eyes darkened before he looked away, pretending as if he hadn’t seen him.

Erik let out a soft sigh, well things were going very well, weren’t they?

“He’s actually very good at teaching even if his method is rather unconventional,” a new voice said, Erik hummed as he turned.

“Let class out early?” he asked his long time friend, “That’s unlike you, Charles.”

“They have some reading to catch up on,” the other man replied, “How are you doing?”

“How long has he been helping to teach?” Erik asked, avoiding the question asked of him.

“About a week after he awoke, he started helping the team with their training and I thought he might enjoy helping some of the other students as well with their skills, he has taken to it all with aplomb despite his situation.”

“Hmm,” Erik replied glancing back out the window to watch him, he was helping another of the students with their posture and he seemed to be enjoying doing so.

“He occasionally leaves to help others out in the world, but he has, so far, always returned,” Charles said, “He’s a very good person, he’s had a rough life too...I think if you two tried to get along, you’d be a very formidable pair.”

“Really?” Erik rolled his eyes and glanced at him, “I hardly think that’s likely considering all we seem to do is argue and lay blame.”

“You can’t honestly expect everything to work out the moment you meet,” Charles said, sounding highly amused, “You’re just looking for a reason to not try.”

“You think it’s really worth it?” he asked back, scoffing, “He’s from the future, that makes me think that there’s no future for us unless he’s planning to stay, which isn’t realistic, so there is no good way for us to be together in any capacity, those are simple facts.”

Charles let out a soft sigh, “If that’s what you really think…”

“Don’t try to play mind games with me Charles, especially if you’re going to do it outside of my head,” Erik replied darkly.

“I am not, I just think you’re taking a ridiculous stance on this, he is here for a reason Erik, and that reason is to get to know you, you don’t know what the future holds, you never know, there may be a solution, but you won’t know unless you try to find it.”

Erik didn’t reply he had nothing else to say on the matter, even if he knew it wasn’t over. There was too much to unpack in the whole situation for him to even try. Obviously there was a reason but he didn’t want to think about it yet, it was still too soon.

Charles let out a sigh, “Well...regardless, you’re back, but I imagine it’s not just for a visit.”

“No, there have been reports of mutants going missing for short amounts of time then reappearing and having no memory of where they’ve gone, they say they feel fine, and nothing appears to be wrong...but…”

“It is very odd,” Charles agreed, frowning, “I will have Raven look into it when she gets the chance, I think she’d be the best for the job...it is quite worrisome.”

“It reminds me too much of Trask,” Erik said, “If we find out there is another madman trying to create robots to destroy us-”

“We will take care of it Erik, don’t you worry, you battle the same issues we do,” Charles said placatingly, “And with Raven and Clint teaching the new X-Men, I have every faith they are capable. We can take care of it.”

“Very well,” Erik replied and then glanced back out the window at the kids trying to be archers, he frowned, noting Barton was no longer with them.

“He’s listening outside the window,” Charles said, sounding like he was trying not to be amused, but failing.

Erik turned to give him a look but saw the man move into view of the window, he didn’t look the least bit apologetic, “If you’re going to talk about someone probably best not to do it where they can hear.” Then he turned to look at Charles, well as well as he could see him, “Told you so.”

And with that he turned back around and attended to the students still shooting, Erik watched him put a grin back on for the teens and continue his lesson before he lifted his hand and flicked the window closed, locking it with a twitch of his finger.

“What did he tell you?”

“He’s just as convinced as you are that things won’t work out, actually I think he’s more convinced you’ll kill him, but he doesn’t say it,” Charles mused serenely.

“What?” Erik was genuinely shocked at that, “Why?”

“I think his reasoning was that he was the ‘most humany human to ever human’? And you are a ‘human hating mutant supervillain’,” he said, voice still light.

“He thinks I simply kill people because they’re human?” he wasn’t very pleased about that. He did not kill simply to kill. He had his reasons.

“You haven’t ever really made it clear you value their lives, Erik, you can’t exactly blame him, and he’s from the future which does make me wonder…”

Erik glowered at him, “I know what you think of me-”

Charles sighed and held up his hand, “Erik...this isn’t about what I think of you...it’s what you and your soulmate think of each other, how you’re going to get along and how you will grow together- whether that is as friends, lovers or enemies, it is something you have to figure out for yourselves. And to do that you actually do need to try.”

Erik took a breath and then let it out to calm himself, Charles was right. Erik knew that, in order to actually play things out, they would need to try, but currently trying to imagine a future with the stubborn archer seemed impossible. He was  _ from _ the future for one thing, over thirty years in the future, which meant that even if they ended up as something like lovers, however unlikely, if Clint returned to the future, Erik would be in his 80s, he was fairly positive most eighty-year olds didn’t go around sleeping with people in their thirties. So that was out. He also knew they weren’t likely to be enemies, he just knew, he didn’t hate the archer, he was aggravating and irritating sure and he sometimes made Erik feel justified in thinking humans were inferior, but Erik didn’t want to destroy him, he knew how to differentiate  _ those _ feelings. So perhaps they were meant to team up for something, and that was that? Friends perhaps. Erik wasn’t sure how their skills were compatible, but he guessed that could be found out with time, it seemed the most likely. They were meant to help each other, perhaps, he could accept that, he supposed. Now just trying to coordinate with the other man, perhaps, was where the issues would start. He wasn’t looking forward to that, especially after their initial encounters. 

So yes, they needed to try, but there was no way he was going to let Charles know he agreed with him.

“It’s going to end in disaster,” he said instead and Charles smiled, taking that as agreement.

“You won’t know unless you-”

Erik scoffed and rolled his eyes walking away before Charles finished, leaving his old friend to chuckle in amusement to himself.

Erik tried not to smile at the chuckles coming from behind him, but failed, at least there was no one around to see it. 

 

Life suddenly got very awkward for Clint. 

Magneto was apparently staying in the mansion now, the kids didn’t seem to mind, many of them would actually ask him stuff, like if he’d really almost pulled all of the metal out of the ground or if he’d really helped to stop Apocalypse. He was patient and kind to any who asked even if sometimes he didn’t fully answer their questions. He, however, did decline the offer of teaching any classes even if he had a fairly broad knowledge base in many things, he seemed to not be interested in that. 

Clint didn’t care, he made it a point to try and avoid him instead, if he didn’t think it was going to work out, he saw no point in making it so they were around each other, no matter how many times Raven thought to call him an idiot about it too. He honestly just wanted to get back to his normal existence of being the fifth wheel, or really it was more like...fifteenth wheel if he included all the Avengers et al. He could just go back to his dog idea, he’d make a great dog owner...probably. As long as the dog didn’t try to run him into another black hole.

Clint let out a long sigh as he flopped back in the seat he’d claimed in the library. It was late in the afternoon and this was not a likely place for people to look for him so he considered himself pretty well alone, but he was pretty bored, and incredibly restless. It was like now that his soulmate was nearby his body only wanted one thing of him while his mind adamantly refused to acquiesce. He wasn’t going to approach his soulmate, it was too awkward. He’d overheard him talking about how he didn’t think there was a point in trying, he hated knowing he was right and he hated even more being surprised his soulmate had unknowingly agreed with him about the whole matter. Clint was supposed to be the one with the morbid thoughts and dark sense of humor, and fatalistic views about his own future. But knowing he wasn’t alone in that, well it kind of sucked. 

He also thought about the whole mutants going missing thing and also thought about the kids going missing and the man he’d had arrested...it left him unsettled even if he didn’t know if they were connected or not, he wasn’t a total idiot. They had to be connected, otherwise he wouldn’t have been the one to get the guy arrested and he wouldn’t have been present for that particular snippet of conversation. They had to be connected somehow, the missing mutants could play into the experimentation on children, but if that was the case, why were they let go? It just didn’t make sense.

A small part of him knew that maybe if he went to go solve the mutant mystery it might endear him to his soulmate, but he knew that was a bullshit thing to do, especially if he ignored the shit happening to the humans too. And he just couldn’t do that. Not to mention he had no idea where to start. The crazy man had been wanting to make the perfect mutant, but it was kind of weird for him to be kidnapping perfectly healthy human kids to do it. Clint had checked shortly after the whole incident to see how many kids had gone missing, it hadn’t been more than ten, but that was still too many, especially as he’d also found out most of them had ended up dying weeks later, that had been a couple months ago now, and he hadn’t heard anything else about it, so that was probably done. The kids probably had nothing else to do with the missing mutants, it was two separate things.

But something inside told him it wasn’t.

He was just frustrated he didn’t have the resources or brain power to figure out what was going on, he just knew he couldn’t do anything until he got another reason to, but at the same time he hoped he didn’t get one. He’d come across human experimentation before and it was always horrific. He’d not felt an ounce of regret when he’d shot the ones responsible in the eye for it. And now knowing it could be happening still but being unsure where or how was pretty frustrating. 

Maybe he could ask Charles about it, see if he could pinpoint it if it was happening, and maybe he could get some help from his magnet obsessed soulmate and things would work out, maybe that was why he was here? It seemed logical; to get him to stop being an asshole towards humans, but he was also from the future, and knew that wasn’t how things ended up.

So what the fuck.

He was back at square one, with no fucking clue and twice as frustrated as before. He groaned and sank lower in the seat and put the magazine he had over his face to be dramatic. He should find something else to focus on that might help.

“So this is where you’re hiding,” an amused voice said, he huffed a sigh and tilted his head so the magazine fell off and he could pout at Raven.

“I’m not hiding, I’m thinking, there’s a difference,” he said and she hummed.

“You need to hide in order to think?” she asked and he huffed shaking his head and picking the magazine up and folding it up and setting aside.

“Don’t you ever want to be alone sometimes?” he asked and she shrugged.

“Yes,” she said and then cocked her head at him, “Do you want me to leave?”

“No, you’re fine, I think I’ve thunk all I need to about the issue…” he shook his head, “Sometimes I gotta accept there’s just not something I can do about the thing at the moment...now I just need to do something.”

“Well…” she looked at him before finishing, “I might have something for you to do.”

“What?” he said not trying to appear eager because knowing her she might just lock him in a room with Magneto. So far she’d been the most vocal to them, she called them both idiots any chance she got because of the whole avoiding and not talking to each other thing, and while she may have a point, Clint also thought she just liked calling them idiots.

“We might have a potential situation happening in New York with some mutants,” she said, Clint sat up.

“The X-Men gonna handle it?” he asked and she nodded.

“Now is as good a time as any to see what they’ve learned, but it might be good to have you on hand...just in case.”

“Sure,” he said immediately, “I can keep an eye out and everything, we leaving now?”

“Yep, I was just looking for you,” she said and then her body phased and she was wearing a new suit with yellow accents over blue and had an X on the chest.

“Fancy,” Clint laughed, “Let me go suit up and I’ll be right there.”

“Great, be on the X-Jet in ten or you’re getting left behind,” she said standing and heading out.

“Yes Ma’am,” he drawled already behind her so he could get his own gear, trying not to feel excited at getting out and being able to shoot or just be involved in action. He was able to get all of his gear on in six minutes flat and was heading down the stairs when he stopped for a half a second to see Magneto at the bottom of the stairs talking to one of the younger students, he stopped mid sentence and looked up at him, Clint made eye contact with him for a very brief moment then turned away and walked down the hall to the secret elevator, not saying a word.

“Don’t get shot,” he finally said when Clint was almost there, Clint turned around and arched an eyebrow at him.

“I’ll think about it,” he replied and then stepped into the elevator and collapsed against the wall to smack a hand to his face. He was a mess. 

He didn’t let that distract him though, he stepped off and hurried into the hangar, where the others were now on the newly created X-Jet, apparently Beast had come back a few times Clint had been away to finish and upgrade it, funny they’d always missed each other, Clint had wanted to talk to him about things, but oh well, they’d probably see each other eventually.

And hopefully Clint wouldn’t make an ass of himself to him like he just had to his soulmate. Self sabotage seemed to be his middle name.

He walked up the ramp and nodded at Raven who smirked at him, the others were all there too, all wearing matching uniforms to Raven’s.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Clint grinned, “Time to save some people and be badasses!”

“Is that what you think you do when you’re doing this stuff?” Scott asked, and Clint scoffed.

“Of course not, I watch everyone else’s asses,” he said making a few of the others snort, he grinned at himself and was pleased to finally be doing this again, he pulled on his mask to keep his identity safe and settled in.

 

The first real outing of the X-Men was super awesome, they hadn’t destroyed anything and had ended up saving the day. It had gone stupendously, of course the media didn’t care though, they tried to make it seem like the whole thing was their fault, which was pretty frustrating, but Raven didn’t seem surprised by the whole thing. Clint hadn’t had to pull out his bow, which was probably a good thing, he’d stayed up high and watched everything, calling out what he saw over the very new and yet super old school radio communications they had, Clint wondered if it was intentional, to see if anyone else could hijack the frequency to listen to them. But whatever, no one had been hurt save for the few people in the initial blast and the three mutants who had been trying to rob a jewelry store ended up fleeing after they realized they were outmatched.

It was still a win in the X-Men’s favor even if no one but them counted it, but now it had mutants back on the radar, at least more than directly after the whole Apocalypse mess, most had stayed quiet and been laying low after the mixed opinions from the whole thing, but now that seemed to be over, which meant the X-Men were going to have to help more, so as to improve their image.

“Why do we even need to?” Peter asked, happily relaxing with a beer that Clint had insisted they get as celebration even if only he, Raven and Peter were the ones old enough to drink. They were all relaxing in the room they’d first met Clint in, celebrating their win.

“Yeah, if we’re saving them why does what they write about us even matter?” Scott asked trying to unsuccessfully sneak one of the beers. 

“Ah, my poor young padawans, much to learn you have,” Clint hummed taking a drink of his beer after having thrown a penny at Scotts hand, he was rubbing the sore spot while scowling at him.

“Okay, Yoda,” Jean said, amused, “What do we get out of it?”

“Trust,” Clint shrugged, “Believe me, I get how fucking annoying and awful and terrible it is for the media to be something you have to focus on, I still hate doing it with the Avengers, but I know how important it is for them to be on your side.”

“Are they ever on our side?” Kurt asked softly, “In the future?”

“Oh sure,” Clint smiled, “I think they like you more than us sometimes, but to be fair, you’ve been doing your shit longer than we have.”

“When did the Avengers form?” 

“So…we formed during an alien invasion in 2012,” he said shrugging, “Individually we’d been doing stuff here and there, but the team literally formed in the middle of a crisis, honestly we were kind of a hot mess, but whatever, aliens got blown up, earth was saved.”

He took a deep breath, “But a lot of people died...the media wanted our heads for ages...particularly mine.”

“What, why?” Raven asked, her eyebrows shot up, he smirked, but it was without humor, he noticed they were all listening with rapt attention.

“I helped them invade,” he said and that got a lot of shocked looks, he snorted, “There’s this...thing, called the Tesseract, it’s this small cube that has all this power that SHIELD thought it could use to power stuff and well, it was also a door, someone came through the door. They used this...scepter to take over my mind and I ended up helping him do whatever he wanted, which resulted in the aliens invading. I was knocked out of the mind control before and wanted to right wrongs, you know…”

He heard Jean gasp softly and knew she’d made the connection to his whole ‘didn’t like having his head messed with’ thing from before.

“Well it ended with after the whole thing someone let the media know I was one of the ones responsible, of course I was also in question with my own superiors and, it was a shit time, I honestly still have nightmares about the whole thing, but in the end I was shoved in front of a microphone to share my side of things and I was able to stay with the Avengers, thanks to sharing all my shitty feelings in front of the media, gained sympathy from some people, made others realize the Avengers had done all they could, blah blah, but anyway, my point is, the media, as annoying as they are, are really important in helping to keep us from being painted the villains.”

“Shit, Clint,” Peter said, “That’s...shit, I’m sorry.”

Clint shrugged, “Not much I can do about it, in the past or not, it happened and pretty much resulted in the Avengers so…”

“So all of that means we should be happy for the media and let them do what they want?”

“Oh god no, when they’re in the wrong you have to make sure you clear things up, any chance you get, be as truthful as you can without anyone getting hurt, because if they find out you lied you’d be in worse shape, but yeah...basically, just try to use them to your advantage. The X-Men actually came to our aid a few months after the aliens, and it helped improve our own image, so thanks for that.”

“Who were you fighting that you needed our help?” Raven asked, seeming curious, and well, fair, if the Avengers had taken down an alien invasion, surely they could handle more, right?

“Shit um...that was like four years ago Raven, I dunno...maybe the Brotherhood? Or it could have been the Hellfire Club.”

“The Hellfire Club is disbanded,” a new voice said, sounding very stern and it made Clint jump nearly a foot in the air as he spun around awkwardly in his chair to see Erik standing there.

“Jesus fuck, how long have you been eavesdropping?” he demanded, holding a hand to his chest to still his now madly beating heart. He also vaguely remembered Sebastian Shaw had been the leader of the Hellfire Club back in the day, and Magneto had killed him, “And maybe it is now, but it’s not in thirty years. Someone one else runs it.”

“Who runs it?” he demanded, stepping closer.

“I don’t know, some lady,” Clint huffed, “You are _ really _ intense you know that?”

“Who? What lady?” he asked ignoring all other questions.

“I seriously have no idea, okay? I just know she’s a telepath...I think she has a penchant for the color white,” Clint grunted, frowning at him.

“Emma…” he muttered and then he spun around and marched out of the room.

“Erik!” Raven called and sprang out of her chair after him.

Clint watched them both rush out of the room, “Well then.”

“That was weird,” Peter said, blinking after them.

“Seconded,” Scott said, “Who’s Emma?”

“Don’t ask me,” Clint shrugged and downed the rest of his beer, “I don’t know shit.”

But he was eyeing Erik and Raven in the reflection of the mirror on the wall, they were arguing about something and Raven kept gesturing his way and he got the feeling she was arguing he couldn’t go running half cocked on something so baseless, at least that’s what he thought she said, it was hard to read lips when they were a reflection.

After a long tense moment Raven came back in and Clint noted Magneto was standing at the threshold of the room again which so conveniently was not shown in the mirror which was why he hadn’t seen him the first time. Of course.

Raven moved back to her chair frowning contemplatively, “...You’re sure that’s what she looks like?” She finally asked.

“No,” Clint replied, “I’ve never met her, I just know she’s a telepath…” he paused, “I think she can turn into like a diamond or something too.”

That got a reaction too, but Erik didn’t storm out again. Raven simply took a deep breath and let it out.

“You’re absolutely sure that’s what she can do?” she asked, and Clint nodded.

“That’s what SHIELD’s reports say, I’ve only seen pictures of her, she’s blonde? Kinda has a smirky look on her face in most of them, and the reports said she was telepathic and could turn into a diamond like substance, I’ve never been around her, never met her...why?”

Raven glanced up at Erik and then back to Clint, “Emma Frost was one of the people who we originally teamed up to fight in Cuba and she died...ten years ago.”

“....whelp.” Clint blinked, “That is a bit of a mystery, isn’t it?”

“We need to find her-”

“Weeeell...see...the thing is...the date of birth in her records says 1987 and her pictures match someone about that age, so...either that’s a lie, or she was reborn or some shit,” Clint pointed out, “Or she’s got more powers than you thought? I really don’t know, but like...how is that even enough to go on?”

“What do you mean?” Raven asked, arching her brow.

“Well, say she is alive...then what? It’s not like you can just...go and find her-”

“Cerebro,” Erik said, “She is a powerful telepath, Charles would find her with ease,” Erik said, Clint blinked.

“Oh yeah, I sometimes forget that’s a thing,” Clint hummed then shrugged, “Well then, there ya go.”

Erik spun around then and presumably went to go find Charles, Raven sighed, “I’ll be back.”

“Well that was exciting,” Clint mused as he watched her follow the other man.

“I wonder why he’s so intent on finding her,” Peter said.

“He seems the type to be reluctant to let something lie until he knows the full truth, so...if he finds her he’ll probably see what’s up.”

“Maybe he’s in love with her,” Ororo said.

“A telepath? I doubt it,” Jean offered, “The fact that he doesn’t have his helmet the whole time while he’s here only shows he’s trying not to bring attention to himself, he hates having people in his head just as much as Clint does. No wonder they’re soulmates.”

“You think you’re so cute,” Clint drawled at her, then shrugged, “Whatever doesn’t really matter, we were awesome, celebrate.” 

“Hear hear,” Peter said nodding and downing his beer, Clint nodded and did the same.

Trying hard not to think about what had just happened. 

For some reason, the whole thing niggled something in the back of his mind, but he just couldn’t place it. Oh well, chances were it would reveal itself in time.


End file.
